Duty and Deceit
by Subterraneangem
Summary: A Decepticon intel agent is given an assignment she never wanted. But duty demands she obey. Her mission goes terribly wrong, and Terabyte finds herself doubting her purpose. Trust is gained and lost by many, the near loss of her closest friend only compounding her conflict. Will she ever be able to make a decision? And if she does... Whose side will she choose? OC. Primeverse/AU
1. Chapter 1

**Duty and Deceit**

**Chapter 1**

**Mission: Infiltration**

_She had only been in the Decepticon base at Kaon for a couple joors. No one even glanced at her as she wandered down the halls. She assumed that since she was a new recruit, she ought to report to a commanding officer so that she could be properly assigned a post. However, the only mechs she'd seen had acted as though she didn't exist, other than the one that had welded the insignia on. How was she supposed to be a useful addition to the Decepticons if no one bothered to give her an assignment?_

_Turning a corner, the femme almost ran straight into a towering green mech... a flier of some sort judging by the wings._

_"Why have you left your post, femme?" His voice was deep and the mech seemed nearly angry, though she had no idea why._

_"Oh, well, I don't know... Maybe the fact that no one has bothered to give me an assignment? That might have something to do with it. Really, I'd have thought your precious Lord Protector would at least make sure his troops had orders."_

_The mech frowned, but didn't say anything for several klicks. She wondered vaguely if she ought to have been more respectful. She considered the mech, he was nearly twice her height and looked like he could take on the Prime... and win. After what seemed like an eternity, the mech spoke again._

_"Foolish femme. Lord Megatron does not have time to personally see to every Decepticon in our ranks." His engine growled threateningly. The sound echoed off the walls of the empty corridor. She nodded timidly. "Come. I will assess your skills and assign you your post." He walked down the corridor with the little Prussian blue and black femme running to keep up._

_"What's your name...sir?" She asked, still unfamiliar with the military formalities, after they had walked in silence for a while._

_"I am Skyquake."_

An internal ping brought Terabyte's mind back to the present. Frowning into her practically untouched cube of energon, Terabyte answered her comm.

_/Terabyte here./_ The comm-line was silent and she briefly wondered if someone was playing some sort of a prank on her... Or more likely, it was probably Soundwave. Terabyte sighed quietly. She enjoyed working in communications and intel, but Soundwave's unending silence was disturbing.

_/Location: Bridge. Come./_ The order was short and precise. As was to be expected.

Abandoning her untouched energon, Terabyte left the mess hall and headed to the bridge at a fast walk. Soundwave did not appreciate tardiness, and besides that, it was her duty as a Decepticon to follow orders with all speed.

Terabyte paused in her thoughts for a moment. Here she was lecturing herself on duty... when she first came she hadn't cared about it, or the cause... she only joined because she'd had nowhere else to go. The Autobots had ensured that.

She'd only been called to the bridge of the Nemesis a few times, the last time she was summoned it was for an announcement that they had received orders to stockpile energon from the mines on the surface with plans to build a space bridge in preparation for Lord Megatron's return.

Upon entering Terabyte went straight to Soundwave, her face hidden safely behind her battle mask, effectively covering her anxiety with an appearance of calm confidence.

"Reporting as ordered, Sir." She paused then made a small bow to Starscream, who was standing smugly in front of a chained, and rather beat up, red Autobot.

Under her mask, Terabyte smirked at the image in her processor that so aptly matched Starscream's expression to that of a sparkling who had finally learned to walk across the room on his own without falling on his aft.

Pushing that image aside, she turned her attention to the Autobot and quickly determined that he had only just been thrown at Starscream's feet, as the commander's words confirmed. Quickly checking her data banks for any Autobots matching his appearance, she matched the mech to a warrior designated as 'Cliffjumper'. A small description of him stated that he was reckless, talkative, and relatively dangerous.

"Ah, what have we here? A pitiful Autobot soldier..." He sneered at the Autobot, only to recoil slightly when the prisoner lunged at him, pulling the chains taut.

From her position, Terabyte couldn't see the Autobot's face, but the way he spoke made her pretty certain that he was actually grinning in spite of his injuries.

"'Scream. Been a while." The mech paused to cough up a substantial amount of oil, but continued. "So. Where's your master?"

Terabyte couldn't help but admire the mech's strength and insolence, especially since he was completely defenseless. Her file's description was quite accurate.

"Never mind him! I am my own master." Starscream's face contorted in indignation and he raised his blade-like fingers, about to plunge them straight into the mech's spark-chamber when Megatron's voice rang out in the near-empty chamber.

"Starscream, you fool! He may still be of use to our cause."

Just for confirmation, Terabyte glanced in Soundwave's direction as the voice spoke. Soundwave had used a record of Megatron from the last time Starscream tried to offline an annoying prisoner prematurely. From what Terabyte had heard, the Seeker did so on a relatively regular basis.

As if satisfied that Starscream's rage would now be contained, Soundwave turned his attention to Terabyte. An image of the Nemesis' brig appeared on Soundwave's screen, then Soundwave gestured first at her then at Cliffjumper, indicating that she was to take the Autobot to one of the holding cells.

Giving her commander an acknowledging nod, Terabyte charged her small cannon and approached the prisoner. As she raised the weapon level with his helm, she spoke, her voice smooth and quietly threatening.

"Resistance would be... inadvisable," she released his bonds slowly, "Get up, Autobot."

Cliffjumper stood up to his full height, which was nearly a full helm taller than her. Terabyte pursed her lip-plates in annoyance at her short stature; she had never met a mech that wasn't taller than her. She prodded the mech towards the door.

They walked in silence to the brig for most of the way, because although Cliffjumper tried to initiate conversation every breem or so, Terabyte refused to respond in any way. After she raised the containment field she ran a quick scan on him. He had several major leaks throughout his systems and a couple dents in his armor that were crushing the wiring underneath. If Soundwave had a plan for the Autobot, then she probably ought to make sure someone did some repair-work on him.

Not bothering to tell Cliffjumper that repairs and energon would be brought, Terabyte left the room. Standing outside the door, she checked her chronometer._Well. So much for my break._ Terabyte thought sourly as she headed towards the communications lab.

The rest of the orn was relatively uneventful, other than the fact that Soundwave had also assigned the prisoner as her responsibility. Which meant that her already near-nonexistent free time was now spent taking Cliffjumper his energon rations and working on his repairs, much to her annoyance. She didn't see why one of the drones couldn't have done it. But of course she couldn't complain... Duty would not allow it.

_"A true Decepticon will follow orders. Personal preferences mean nothing."_ Skyquake's voice rumbled in her mind, as she recalled his first lectures on duty.

_2nd rotation of the next orn_

Before she reached her usual work terminal, one of the Vehicons informed her that she was expected in Soundwave's office. Soundwave generally called her to his office once an orn and gave her the orders, having her relay them to the drones as she saw fit.

Terabyte hesitated slightly at the entrance. It had only been one rotation since the last briefing, so that couldn't be the reason she was expected. Maybe it would have something to do with the prisoner? Soundwave had implied that he had plans for the Autobot...

Soundwave's office was even darker than the rest of the Nemesis, though also much more organized. Everything had a place, the walls were bare and so was his desk, aside from one mid-size datapad. Soundwave gestured for her to sit down and watch the projection that was currently paused on the wall to her right.

Terabyte sat down slowly, trying to gauge Soundwave's expression. It might have been helpful, if he had an expression, but the purple mech's visor was a blank abyss. She briefly considered if her own helm type would be compatible with a visor.

Probably not.

The projection showed several successful Decepticon spies and the wealth of information that they had gathered. Some had lived their whole lives in the Autobot's ranks without ever being discovered, even vorns after they offlined.

The Autobots could be so gullible. So confident in their own rightness, they readily accepted any mech that claimed to have 'seen the light' of their cause. Terabyte's lips curled up in a disgusted sneer, still thankfully hidden by her ever-present battle mask.

When the presentation was over, Soundwave looked at her expectantly. Terabyte's golden yellow optics dimmed as she processed the information and worked out what her commander wanted. Her helm rose and her optics widened as it sunk in.

"Sir," she started quietly, forcing her tone into one of detached curiosity. "Would another mech, perhaps of higher rank, not be better qualified for such a mission?"

Soundwave shook his helm slightly.

Terabyte lowered her helm in resignation, deep in her processor already knowing the reason. "I have rarely been on the field, the Autobots have no past records of me that would give them reason for distrust aside from the insignia I wear." She concluded soberly. "The Autobots will be more likely to trust me than any other mech."

"My plan exactly..." He replied with a record of Starscream. Most likely one of Starscream's schemes to take command, Terabyte figured Starscream hadn't meant for anyone to hear it.

The human transmitting symbol flashed on Soundwave's visor and she nodded her understanding, not that it was necessary. Seconds later she receive a large data burst, containing several gigabytes of information detailing her mission, how and how often she was to report, as well as all the info they had on the Autobots, their base, and their 'morals, rules, and codes of conduct'.

Her processor instantly summarized the transmission down to this: The Autobots were no doubt going to arrive soon to rescue Cliffjumper. She was to help them, insuring that they did as little damage as possible without revealing her true loyalties. She would lay low and gain their trust, confidence, and a place in their ranks. Once that was achieved, she would gather info and give a report of her findings every quartex, or as close to that as she could manage without arousing suspicion.

Soundwave had also included a warning that only the high-ranking officers would be aware of her true mission. The drones and low-ranks would truly think that she'd betrayed them.

Terabyte twitched an audio finial slightly. She would be considered a traitor to most of the Decepticons. Traitors were to be killed on sight, or sometimes even brought to Lord Megatron himself for a very long excruciatingly painful death. Terabyte only barely managed to conceal the convulsive shudder that ran through her at the thought, reminding herself that the Lord Protector would most certainly know of her mission.

"Understood. How shall I proceed until such time as the Autobots attempt a rescue?" She maintained a somewhat excessively formal tone. The past couldn't be allowed to interfere with her mission.

* * *

**A.N. So... How's that for a start? Reviews, comments and criticism are all much appreciated and encouraged!**

**By the way, this is my first story, so I'm not sure how often I'll be able to post. To start with, I'll try to post bi-weekly, I may post more frequently once I get the hang of it, but no guarantees.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Duty and Deceit**

**Chapter 2**

**Acting**

_An orn had gone by, but Skyquake still hadn't found a post for her. She had practically failed his examination; she was raised a neutral, she hadn't been taught to be a fighter._

_Skyquake tried to put her in the med-bay, but __she annoyed the medics and had little to no interest in becoming one herself. After that he tried to put her into__ mining, but she wasn't big enough to effectively use the equipment. Scouting and the front lines were both out, Skyquake had told her that she was both too small -to which she had objected greatly- and she didn't have the military training or necessary skills._

_Finally, she got assigned to Soundwave's department: Communications and Intel. Soundwave was kind of creepy, but once she adjusted to his silent type of communication, the little femme found herself enjoying her job._

_Bothered by Skyquake's obvious lack of confidence in her strength and combat skills, she had decided to give the big mech a visit. He was most likely right; her creators didn't teach her much past emergency self-defense. Maybe she'd be able to change that with a little help. Besides that, she was a bit lonely, though she'd never admit it._

_Drones didn't make for good company._

* * *

Optimus Prime's voice echoed in Terabyte's mind as she walked the empty corridors leading to the brig, Soundwave's last order before her dismissal.

_"… Become an Autobot."_

_"Sir... I have had very little experience with the Autobots. I have seen their destruction, the lifeless chassis of mechs they've slaughtered. I doubt that acting on what I know of the Autobots would encourage their trust." Terabyte had replied, her tone tinged with bitterness._

_"The Autobots can help you. We believe in peace for all..." He was still using the Prime's voice._

_Repressing a derisive snort, Terabyte had nodded and left after Soundwave dismissed her. She took her usual shift, organizing various files, scanning the human's news channels for anything that would help in finding the Autobot base, and making sure the drones were all following orders and ship's systems were running at optimum efficiency._

Now the moment that she had been dreading throughout the rotation. Terabyte stood at the door to the brig with her repair kit and the prisoner's rations safely stored in subspace. She stared at the door for nearly a breem.

Shaking her head, the cybertronian two-wheeler opened the door. Orders were orders. Orders must be followed or the system would collapse and the cause would fail. If the cause failed, then Cybertron would have been destroyed for nothing.

"You come to kill me now that I'm all fixed again? 'Cause I was fine with just being fixed and fed, y'know?" Cliffjumper asked, tone buoyant and carefree as usual.

"I'm not here to kill you." Terabyte said flatly. She put down the field and walked in, the energon in her servo extended. "Look... How long 'till your team comes in after you?"

Cliffjumper took the offered energon, drinking it slowly, savouring the taste. They only fed him limited rations, so what little they did feed him he liked to take slowly. He didn't seem to have noticed her question.

She sat down on the berth, keeping the distance between them obviously distant, yet close enough to be considered hesitant friendliness.

"I'm not here to kill you," she repeated more softly. "I'm not here to interrogate or torture you either. I just wanted to know."

"Why? What's a stinking 'Con care if my friends send a rescue?" He glared at the small, black and Prussian blue two-wheeler. The carefree tone was instantly replaced with seriousness.

_'There's nothing wrong with how I smell!' _Terabyte thought defensively. Out loud she said, voice lowered so that he would hear, but suspect that she hadn't meant him to, "Maybe this 'stinking 'Con' is sick of being bad..."

Terabyte turned her back to him slightly with her helm tilted down to enhance the effect of having been hurt by his distrust.

The urge to gag was almost overpowering. Terabyte wasn't sure how long she'd be able to keep it up. Did the Autobots really expect their femmes to act this weak all the time? She skimmed through files on a couple of the femmes that had been captured in the history of the war. Apparently, according both to Soundwave's intel and Cliffjumper's reaction.

The mech looked extremely unsure of what to do. From the corner of her optic she could see him repeatedly raise his hand as if to comfort her before awkwardly dropping it back down.

_'Okay... Enough is enough. A line has to be drawn somewhere. I don't want to overplay my part and get stuck with it. No comforting. Time to lay off on the weak femme performance for a bit.'_ Straightening, and giving herself a small shake, sniffling a little for good measure, she turned back towards him, helm held high again.

"So. Do you know when they'll come for you?"

"I don't know _exactly, _but knowing Arcee, they should be here any time now. After all, they're probably getting pounded without me around."

"Excellent. That gives me a little time to finish the last of your repairs." Terabyte figured it was best to let him judge just _what_ she was saying 'excellent' to.

With that, she pulled her med-kit out of subspace and ran a quick scan over him. Cosmetic damage was all that was left. She vented a deep gust of cool air through her systems. Cosmetic though it may be, there sure was a lot of work to do. Terabyte thought wistfully about the last time she recharged properly. Must have been several rotations by now, though she couldn't remember exactly. She'd missed her last refuel too.

"Look about what I said..." Cliffjumper trailed off, obviously trying to figure out how to express his thoughts.

"It's fine. I'm a 'Con. Not like I expected anything different." Terabyte interrupted stiffly. She hated how she was going to have to act ashamed of the cause she believed in so fully. It was disgusting, yet she knew it was for that very cause that she was acting in the first place.

Cliffjumper sat in silence for a while, the only sounds were those of armor clicking into place, and the faint whirring of the magnetic tool. He opened his mouth as if to say something, then frowned and shut it again abruptly as if disgusted by his own thought. Terabyte smirked, but continued to work silently.

* * *

As soon as she finished Terabyte made her way to her quarters. Getting recharge took priority over fuel levels. Especially if the Autobot's rescue was going to be happening soon, she needed to be ready.

Terabyte paused in the corridor, her room just around the corner. She laid her small, delicate looking hand on the door she'd stopped in front of. The room behind that door was empty and had never been lived in, she knew, but she also knew whose quarters they were meant to be.

The huge jet was supposed to be stationed on this dirt-ball, but Terabyte knew that he was likely in stasis, and even if he weren't, Skyquake would never leave his post unless so ordered by Megatron himself.

"You don't have time to get sentimental, Terabyte. Go get some recharge, you need it." She scolded herself quietly. Shooting one last glance at his door, Terabyte moved on to her own quarters. She was asleep the moment her helm hit the berth, the soft golden-yellow glow of her proto-lights illuminating the dark room.

* * *

About five joors into her shift, Terabyte noticed something on one of her passive deep-space scans. Curiosity made her forget about the report she was typing up, she examined the scan results thoroughly. The computer had concluded that while there _appeared_ to be a faint transmission, it was highly probable that it was simply space static interfering with the systems.

Just to be on the safe side - the small femme rarely paid attention to the computer's analyses anyway – Terabyte spent another joor clarifying the transmission and cross-referencing the particular frequency with the Nemesis' records.

Shock rolled over her and she simply stared disbelievingly at her discovery for several klicks. As soon as she snapped out of her state of stupor, she opened a comm. link with Soundwave, sending an urgent ping through as standard procedure.

_/?/_ Soundwave's response appeared on her HUD almost instantly.

_/Sir, I believe you might wish to see this personally. I detected a minor disturbance in the deep-space scans you had me run. Upon further examination, it was determined to be a transmission. I have cleared out most of the interference, enough to get an unclear voice pattern. I've already cross-referenced it with our records; it is from Lord Megatron./ _Terabyte reported, her tone not quite hiding her pride, not to mention amazement, at her finding.

Far sooner than she'd expected, Soundwave stormed into the communications lab radiating almost... excitement? He was at her terminal in nanoseconds, shoving her aside in the process.

Terabyte stumbled several steps backward from the sheer strength of the mech, then a couple more in a failed attempt to regain her balance before falling hard on her aft.

"Thanks a lot. So glad I could help. Your appreciation is duly noted." She muttered sarcastically, carefully keeping her voice all but inaudible to those present.

"Excellent." The single word played back in a record of her own voice, serving to reminder her that Soundwave saw and heard all. Terabyte gave a minuscule nod. It was a good thing; her commander was keeping track of her mission. She tried to ignore the part of her processor that wondered just how many other 'secrets' Soundwave knew.

Just as quickly as he had come, the purple head of communications was gone. Terabyte stood up and returned to her console. If she was required further, she would be informed. Terabyte did however finish clearing up the transmission for organization's sake.

Not very long after Soundwave's departure, an order was issued ship-wide. All personnel were to report to the ship's throne room in two breems. Anyone not present would be severely punished. Ordered by the Great Leader of the Decepticons himself.

Terabyte froze momentarily before rushing out the door, transforming into her Cybertronian alt-mode, and speeding down the now flooded corridors. For once her size gave her a significant advantage and she was able to slip between and around the other 'Cons with relative ease. In just over a breem, Terabyte had reached the doors to the throne room.

The throne room was not used all that often, generally the bridge was used. However, with Megatron coming back, the circumstances had apparently been deemed worthy of its use. Already the area – seeing as it was an unenclosed space on what could be called the roof of the Nemesis, the word 'room' hardly fit- was filled with the troops.

Some had hurried out of excitement for the cause and return of their true leader, but most had simply come out of fear of punishment, as was evident in their postures and expressions, not to mention the loud murmurings and whispers.

The sound of the space bridge being powered up in front of them brought silence to everyone present. The portal opened, the greenish blue lights swirling majestically within the metal ring. All eyes watched it, waiting for whatever would come through.

Terabyte watched as a narrow bridge, somewhat resembling a human ship's plank, was extended outward to the portal's opening. A figure appeared, walking slowly forward from the heart of the portal. As the figure neared, the mech's features became sharper and more distinguished, silver armor flashing in the light.

Before Megatron spoke, Terabyte noticed that he had brought a huge chunk of some strange purple crystal with him. The crystal glowed ominously, something about it bothered her, but she couldn't place exactly what. As she peered at it more closely, the Decepticon leader's voice boomed, almost seeming to come from everywhere around her, unfortunately distracting her from the scan she was about to perform on the mysterious crystal.

"Decepticons! I have _returned_!"

_'Obviously.' _Terabyte thought, '_It's not like the whole army just rushed up here to witness your grand arrival.'_

* * *

The Nemesis shook as it descended to hover over the mountain chasm that the largest energon deposit yet discovered was situated in. Terabyte watched as the miners went about their work, cutting and transporting the raw energon crystals to the refinery. She straightened and venting a draft of cool air through her systems, steeled herself to approach Megatron and the Air Commander, who just now seemed to be boasting his progress.

Terabyte glanced at the restrained Autobot at her side. He was looking around the chasm, watching just as she had been recently, the mining drones' work. The mech whistled long and low.

"Impressive. Can't believe we didn't detect this. The 'Cons have hit the jackpot!"

"Shh!" Terabyte hissed, "I can't help your friends get you out of here if you don't shut up! Lot of good you'll do them if you get yourself offlined before they show up. You're supposed to be a subdued captive, remember?"

Now close enough to pick up what Megatron and Starscream were saying, Terabyte listened carefully, standing at a respectful distance, choosing to wait for her presence to be noticed rather than interrupting the Lord Protector's conversation.

"…army you have surely gathered during your three years in space?" Starscream was saying his voice filled with sarcasm and mock respect. Terabyte wondered why Megatron had allowed the whiny, power-hungry fool to live so long. She could think of no logical reason; Starscream was more trouble than he'd ever be worth.

"My army will come, but my time away has yielded a more… intriguing… means of materializing them. The solid form of the matter the ancient texts refer to as," Megatron paused as if for the dramatic effect, "the Blood of Unicron."

Terabyte stifled a gasp, her processor running through everything she knew of the substance. Many believed the crystal to have dark, possibly magical, powers. Powers that were never meant to be used. The Dark Energon as it was often also called had been used long ago to poison the core of Cybertron, until the Prime, Orion Pax at the time, purged it. The substance also was known to have countless negative side-effects to anything infected by it.

"Unicron the destroyer? But it is said that his blood is the anti-spark." Starscream's voice held a small amount of genuine concern. Most likely for himself.

"Plucked from cosmic shores, gaze upon Dark Energon." The Lord Protector murmured.

"Legend tells that it has the power to revive the dead."

She stared at the crystal. The amount of power that it would give the Decepticons was astonishing. Her optic sharpened eagerly. It could end the war!

"No..." Cliffjumper seemed to have come to a similar conclusion. His cocky stance had faded entirely.

At the sound of his voice, Megatron turned his gaze to Terabyte and the restrained Autobot beside her. Terabyte stiffened, saluting the warlord automatically.

"What is the meaning of this?" He demanded.

"My lord. Commander Soundwave suggested that I bring this Autobot's existence as our prisoner to your knowledge, sir." She paused, glancing at Megatron warily. When he remained silent and made no move against her she continued. "I also came to inform you that he will give you a more detailed report at 1430."

"For what purpose have you brought your prisoner here?" He sounded slightly suspicious.

Terabyte swallowed nervously. "Um… Sir, with all due respect to your Lordship, it is 1420 now. I assure you, my lord, I will be sure to include that information in my daily report."

"Very well. Your actions will, however, be closely monitored until then."

With the subtle threat hanging in the air, he turned and boarded the Nemesis, Starscream at his heels.

* * *

**A.N. Okay beloved readers! Here is the next chapter. I had it ready and I'm on school holidays, so I thought I'd just go ahead and post it now. Don't get used to quick updates though... holidays are nearly over.**

**Thank-you reviewers! I think you should know, you guys are a huge reason for my early post!**

**Neon: No, I will not ever, ever, EVER write slash. Friendships yes, possibly, though probably not, a little bit of an Arcee and Cliff' relationship, but that's as far as I'll go. I try to keep the purity of the younger readers' minds a priority, if you know what I mean. **

**Sorry for the big rant there... *smiles sheepishly*.**

**Nigel Flemming: Not exactly ASAP, but as soon as I could. Lol.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Duty and Deceit**

**Chapter 3**

'**Rescue'**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Transformers, I only own Terabyte.**

* * *

_She walked quietly into the shooting range, the sounds of gunfire filling the air. Skyquake was in the center, blasting drones, targets, and obstacles alike all into piles of charred debris. To the side, there were several drones that appeared to have been torn to pieces in hand-to-hand combat. The large army green jet didn't seem to have noticed her and continued firing with his cannon. The cannon itself was nearly as big as she was._

_Hesitantly, the little two-wheeler approached. Dodging a drone's disembodied head as it flew past, she briefly wondered about the wisdom of what she was about to do. What did she have to lose though? She had nothing left._

"_Sir?"_

_No response._

"_Hey! I'm trying to talk here, could you quit blasting for a minute?"_

_If he'd heard her, he was doing a fantastic job of ignoring her. She growled, frustrated. The golden energon dagger on her right arm released, extending a bit over a foot long. If he was going to ignore her, fine. She'd just have to be loud enough he couldn't pretend. She pointed the weapon at the wall, sincerely hoping her plan would work._

_The near silent crackling of her energy weapon gradually grew louder as she fed more power into it. Finally the pent-up energy could no longer be contained and it discharged as a hot yellow bolt, the sonic boom caused by it bringing Skyquake to a halt._

_He slowly turned at looked at the black scorch mark she'd made on the wall._

"_What do you want femme?" His voice, though still gruff and growling, held an undertone of new-found respect._

"_I want you to teach me to fight. And I want an offensive weapon." She paused, considering all the things she wanted, but could never have again. Her dagger was fried; the energy surge had blown the small generator that powered it. "I also want another energon dagger, to replace this one."_

_Skyquake's lips quirked up slightly. "It can be done."_

* * *

Terabyte blinked several times, staring at Megatron as he boarded the Nemesis. Even once he was gone, she continued to stare at the lift that he'd taken. She hadn't expected him to take her evasive answer nor her subtle suggestion that he might be late so well. To be perfectly honest, Terabyte had half expected the Lord Protector to clobber her for daring to speak so boldly, though she certainly felt anything but bold.

Suddenly realizing that her mouth was hanging slightly ajar, Terabyte hastily shut it, grateful as always to her mask. Cliffjumper chuckled lightly, no doubt at her expression, what little of it he could see.

"Ole' bucket-head's got a point though. Why did you bring me down here? Pretty sure it wasn't for the scenery."

"You will address Lord Megatron respectfully." Terabyte ordered. "Besides, I thought I told you to shut up."

The Autobot didn't listen to her command and was soon talking and joking about every little thing that came to mind. Terabyte shook her helm in exasperation and tuned him out. Did he even care that he risked compromising his own escape? Nothing seemed to get through to the mech.

To speed up the Autobots' arrival, she disabled the portable damping field that had been placed around him; standard procedure for all prisoners, better that the enemy think their guy's dead rather than storming in and wrecking everything their self-righteous troops touched. Using her internal communications array, Terabyte also took the liberty of simultaneously recording and repeating Cliffjumper's spark frequency in sync with his own, making the signal nearly twice as strong as normal.

The enhanced signal apparently had caught the Autobots' attention, because only a few klicks afterward, four Autobot signatures -not counting Cliffjumper's- appeared on Terabyte's HUD, her long-range sensory network having picked up the different faction ID signals. Several danger warnings flashed across her HUD, as well as a few notifications informing her that her automatic defense systems had powered up. It was beginning. **  
**

As soon as the Autobots arrived, Terabyte began hearing weapons fire from inside the entrance tunnel. A group of fighter drones ran to investigate and provide reinforcements for the few that were guarding the area. Most of the miners were fleeing the battle, while a couple valiantly remained, only for their screams to echo in the cavern as they were injured or killed.

Terabyte glanced up at the red mech. He was fidgeting, whether in battle lust or concern for his friends, she was unsure.

"They're here. You need to go with them before someone shoots the energon. It's highly unstable, if one crystal goes, then this whole mountain will explode."

Avoiding the mech's optics, she pulled the key to his cuffs out of subspace. Every wire in her frame protested to what she was about to do. Her ethical subroutines spewed a long lecture on loyalty, dragging buried images of the results of Autobot 'assistance' and 'moral superiority' from her data-banks to the front of her processor. Attempting to cover the pained expression that engraved itself onto her face-plates, Terabyte set him free.

"What about you? Your buddies will turn you to slag for helping me." She would have thought he was actually concerned for her well-being, if it weren't for the longing -the cause for this longing still unidentified - glances he kept shooting in the direction of the approaching battle sounds.

Terabyte tried to ignore the continuing screams of mining and battle drones as the rescue team extinguished their sparks. Typically, they didn't seem to have noticed that the mining drones only had defensive capabilities. All they cared about was getting their one team-mate. Who would care if they each sent a dozen sparks to the pit in the process? Under all their lies, Terabyte had seen what they really were; the cause they claimed to believe in meant nothing to them. They only wanted Cybertron to themselves and as far as they were concerned, anyone who wasn't one of them could rust.**  
**

"My punishment will no doubt be severe…" Terabyte replied, and, forcing her thoughts back into playing her role convincingly, put a hopeful gleam in her optics, her Prussian blue mask effectively concealing her contempt. "You wouldn't… I mean, I'm a 'Con… Your friends won't want me to come with you."

Cliffjumper looked into her optics for a moment, and then shot another glance at the approaching battle; she could now see stray laser-fire coming from the tunnel. Coming dangerously close to the raw energon.

"You can come with me or stay here and get scrapped. Either way, I'm outta here... I've got the world to save." Flashing a grin at her, he ran towards the tunnel, guns raised and ready. **  
**

Before she could follow, the battle came to a momentary standstill, the drones sent in earlier must have all been incapacitated. Terabyte saw the Autobots sneak into the main chamber and then more drones filed in firing on the team. A small femme about her own size; Terabyte guessed it was another two-wheeler by her slender frame, leapt over the boxes they were hiding behind and ran straight for Cliffjumper.

A Vehicon had snuck up above and behind the two Autobots and had a clear shot at Cliffjumper's back. Terabyte watched him power up his weapon and take aim before she raised her mini fusion cannon. The ledge the drone was standing on was relatively small; shooting it would take care of the drone without off-lining him. She sprung on the opportunity, killing one of her own hadn't appealed to her much and Soundwave had wanted as few casualties as possible.

She fired, her aim true, and the drone fell several feet to a platform below, the impact knocking him senseless. Shouts rang out from the troops. Terabyte picked out a few words: traitor, Autobot, weakling. Her audio finial twitched angrily, this mission was an insult to her loyalty.

Cliffjumper and the Autobot femme were now running back to their Prime, not having noticed the danger they had just been saved from. Running after them, Terabyte had to dodge a flurry of weapons' fire. As far as the drones were concerned, she'd just become yet another target. Starscream had come back and was tossing something onto several large energon deposits. He spat some insult or other at the Prime, though Terabyte didn't quite catch it, then flew out of the mine spinning in the air as he went.

"The joint's gonna blow!" A green mech yelled. He was just about as wide as he was tall, Terabyte couldn't help noticing.

"Autobots, roll out!" The Prime ordered, transforming into a large scarlet and blue semi.

Terabyte transformed and shot off down the tunnel, the Autobots ahead of her, seeming to have forgotten about her. Not that it mattered. She didn't need them to like her, just accept her. In fact, her mission would be a lot easier if she didn't get tied up in friendships. Terabyte could feel the heat from the explosion close behind her, licking at her back wheels.

"Ratchet! Bridge us back. Use the arrival co-ordinates, now!" Prime shouted into his intercom.

A portal opened up directly in front of them, and with no other options, Terabyte drove in after them. Transforming as soon as she was through, Terabyte glared at the red and white mech controlling the bridge. She had only just gotten through when it closed, if she'd still been in the portal… Terabyte cut off that thought abruptly, suppressing a shudder. The images she'd seen in records of such space-bridge accidents were enough to give any mech nightmares.

"Whoa…"

Terabyte turned her helm sharply at the sound, which her audios informed her had come from somewhere near her feet. Hesitantly she looked down and stared at the three human children. Soundwave hadn't mentioned anything about the Autobots having pet organics.

"Is that a Decep-ti-con? Cool!" The small, rather colorful, human exclaimed, staring back up at Terabyte with an expression of awe. She seemed to lose interest in her rather quickly though, and the human ran up the stairs to hang over the rail. "What was that explosion? Was there a fight? Can I come with next time?"

Terabyte was looking around at the Autobots' base, trying to figure out just where it actually was, not used to travelling by bridge, whether space or ground. They were using human computer technology, so she assumed that they had little of their ship left, if any so they couldn't there... There was nothing in the room that indicated any specific location. The Decepticons already knew that though, that's why she was there in the first place.

Just then her attention flicked over to Cliffjumper. All the Autobots had finished greeting him and the red and white one, obviously their medic, had gone over him and declared him undamaged. Now the blue and pink femme was glaring at him and looked ready to attack him.

Which she did. Storming up to him, she slapped him hard on the face-plates. She then started yelling at him about 'not needing backup' and being a self-confident idiot for attacking half the Decepticon army single-handed and making them waste time and energy to drag his sorry chassis back to base. Somewhere along the way her furious ranting gave way to her collapsing into Cliffjumper like a deflated balloon.

"Cliff', when your life signal went out… we thought… I was afraid I'd lost…" She whispered brokenly.

"It's okay Arcee, I'm here now and I'm perfectly fine." Cliffjumper returned the hug gently before lightly pushing her off. "You're the last one I expected to go all mushy on me though. Anyone else want to hug their favorite guy?" **  
**

The medic snorted and rolled his eyes in disgust. Meanwhile Terabyte, using Arcee and Cliffjumper's reunion as cover, had casually walked around and was about to pick up a broken medical claw on the floor nearby to examine when the medic turned on her.

"Don't touch that!" His response seemed to be automatic, confirmed by how he then paused and gave her a quick look-over, his gaze settling on the Decepticon insignia welded to her abdomen on a piece of armor best described as a belt buckle, though it served no such purpose. "What is a _Decepticon_ doing in our _base_ anyway?"

Terabyte instantly snatched her hand away from the device, resting it instead by her side, energon dagger ready to shoot out if necessary. Her armor flared and the decorative silver plating that only half covered the dull gray preliminary armor of her abdomen jutting out as her posture shifted to indignant defensiveness.

'_You're not supposed to fight.' _She rebuked herself mentally, Terabyte shifted her posture to one of resigned submission, however, she left her defensive systems at full power just in case. _'Just act like you expected this, which you did, and are willing to accept anything they want to do to you.'_

At least she could be fairly confident that the Prime would make sure they left her alive. So far as the records had shown, the Primes were the only Autobots that actually cared about their cause and morals. The others just followed the Prime.

Surprisingly, at least to her, Cliffjumper spoke up in her defense.

"So Ratch', you just gave me a clean bill of health right? Right. Well you can thank her for that. Everybody meet Terabyte, she fixed me up and just helped me escape."

"And just because of that, you trust her? Just because of _that_ you risk bringing a _Decepticon_ to our _base_?" The medic was on the verge of hysterics. "Even you, dimwitted pit-spawn that you are, even _you_ should know better than that!"

Terabyte studied the old medic. He might get in her way, she noted wryly, though she had to give him credit; at least one of the Autobots had a shred of common sense.

"Look, Ratchet. We should at least give her a chance. She let me go, not even expecting me to bring her back with us. Ratchet, she was prepared to just let me go, and suffer whatever inhumane torture Megatron decided was fitting 'discipline'. Does that sound like something a 'Con would normally do?"

Terabyte grinned widely under her mask, sincerely hoping her glee didn't show too much in her golden-yellow optics. There was no way she'd even dared to imagine that she would get in this easily. As much as she despised the position her mission put her in, the information she could gather at this rate would further the cause substantially. Skyquake would be proud.

"Cliff' a 'Con is a 'Con. She's probably just acting up to gain our trust so she can relay all our plans to Megatron. We can't afford to take that risk." Arcee said, standing next to Cliffjumper.

Freezing in her thoughts, Terabyte tried to hide the flash of fear that swiped over her face-plates. The slightly taller femme's suspicion was so accurate, Terabyte wondered if her previous conclusion was made too soon.

Ratchet looked like he had more he wanted to add, and the black and yellow mech was whirring and beeping indignantly in Cybertronian, arguing that Cliffjumper was right that at least she deserved a chance to defect, following the normal procedures, but Optimus held up a hand to silence them. **  
**

"We are indebted to you for your assistance in Cliffjumper's rescue, Terabyte. However, do not expect us to trust you. Our trust must be earned, and until such time, your actions will be monitored at all times. I will personally escort you to the brig shortly, where you will stay until other arrangements can be made. An interrogation will be performed as well. Direct, honest, and detailed answers would make it a much more pleasant procedure."

"Um. I'd give you any intel I had, but I'm just a low-rank. They don't tell low-ranks much." Terabyte lied smoothly. The only thing that signified her dishonesty was the slight backward twitch of her left finial. Terabyte still couldn't get it to stay still, even after vorns of effort.

"Optimus, I hate to bug but, no bars." The tall human mechling interrupted, holding up a small device that Terabyte was quickly able to identify as a portable telecommunications device. Primitive compared to the intercom, but effective enough seeing as the fleshies' helms were incompatible with the technology.

"A security precaution." Optimus replied, "The silo walls isolate all radio waves." That would explain why her constant scans were always fruitless, wherever they were, they would be invisible to Decepticon sensors.

"Well, if I don't call my mom, like now, I'm pretty sure the cops will be out looking for me."

"Have you broken a law?"

"Um... Curfew. It's after ten pm." the mechling said, sounding rather embarrassed.

"I better get home too, or I'll be grounded for a year." the smallest human with the strangely spiked hair agreed.

"Earth customs, I hadn't considered." The Prime was actually apologizing to the organic younglings. "But the issue of your safety remains. Bulkhead, accompany Miko home."

"Awesome! My host parents will freak!" 'Miko' exclaimed, bouncing excitedly.

"And maintain covert surveillance in vehicle form."

"Curbside duty. Got it." The large olive-coloured mech, 'Bulkhead', confirmed.

_'Talk about a fitting name.'_ Terabyte thought cheekily as she made a mental list, joining each person to their proper designations.

"Aww..." Miko whined, obviously disappointed that Bulkhead wasn't going to be able to transform and most likely traumatize all of her neighbors.

"Bumblebee, you'll watch over Raf."

The yellow mech exchanged a glance with the small human, 'Raf'. Terabyte frowned, the Autobots' names were rather boring... and the humans' names were just plain weird. That just left one human to be guarded.

"Ratchet-"

"Busy." The medic interrupted instantly.

"Arcee, you'll accompany Jack."

"Uhh... Can't Cliff'?"

Optimus just looked at her. He said nothing, just looked at her almost blankly, but she nodded and walked grudgingly over to the child they called 'Jack'.

One by one, each mech and their assigned human drove off to the humans' homes.

"Terabyte, if you would come with me." It was phrased politely, but very clearly an order.

Terabyte nodded and fell into step behind and to the side of the Prime. This mission was going to be extremely long term. She had avoided thinking too much into just how long this mission was going to take. The Autobots' trust was going to take quite a while to gain, before she could really even start. She could be stuck with these mechs for vorns... The idea was daunting, to say the least._  
_

* * *

**A.N. And there you go! I hope you all enjoyed the read. ****As always, I love every review I get and look forward to more!**

**By the way, big thanks to my sister, enmused, for beta-reading this fic!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Duty and Deceit**

**Chapter 4**

**Captivity**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers; I own only Terabyte and things directly related to her.**

_She followed Skyquake to the armory on the far side of the training area. Opening the doors, she saw more varieties of weaponry than she'd ever imagined. Energon prods, daggers, long swords, clubs, maces, flails… Not to mention every model of cannon, blaster, and energy ray invented._

_She shut her mouth upon realizing that it had dropped open in shock. Not that Skyquake could have seen it anyway. She looked up at the jet questioningly. _

"_How on Cybertron am I going to find a weapon I like? Sir. There's so many." _

"_It won't be so hard as you might think. Your frame and function narrow your selection substantially." He had seemed rather bemused by her awe. _

"_So… where shall I begin?"_

_He bent down and handed the small femme a blaster and ordered her to go outside and try it. After several tries, he called her back in. The drone she had fired at had sustained very little damage, although she had succeeded in hitting it once or twice._

"_It doesn't do enough. I wouldn't be able to hurt an Autobot if I shot him in the face at point-blank range." She had complained heatedly._

"_You want a weapon that will hurt. One that will make the Autobots fear you, perhaps?" His eyes glinted now in poorly hidden amusement. She supposed that Skyquake took pleasure in matching a mech to their perfect weapon. In his position, he probably got to do that a lot._

"_Yes and no. I want a weapon that will make them pay. For Protihex." _

_His face had turned grim at the mention of her home city. He looked into her optics for a moment and nodded, reaching towards a mini fusion cannon near the back of the armory. Like all the other weapons, it was a plain steely gray, unpainted and personalized. But for some reason, unknown to her, it seemed to be screaming her name, as if it had been made for her._

_Again he simply passed it to her and sent her out to test it. Somehow feeling as if this test would determine who she became, she took aim carefully. Imagining that the target drone ahead of her was the Autobot who had led the attack that killed her creators, destroying her home and family, she fired. _

_It was a beautiful hit, right where the drone's spark would have been. _

_Vital systems damaged, the drone collapsed, the hole in its chassis smoking. Her golden optics gleaming with hope and determination, she spoke her original purpose for coming._

"_Skyquake, sir? It would be a great honor to train under you, if you would accept me."_

* * *

The Prime walked ahead of her in silence. It was only a short distance to the brig, but time slowed for Terabyte. Prime's very frame seemed to radiate a gentle authority that made her almost want to trust the mech.

Almost.

But he was the leader of the Autobots. All the terrible things the Autobots had ever done had been done in his name. The scarlet and blue mech that towered before her, in his name her home was destroyed; in his name her family was killed. That could never be forgiven, even if the Prime himself had never wanted it.

Terabyte didn't notice when they arrived at the brig. Instead, she simply continued to study the Autobot leader, lost in her thoughts until he turned to her and motioned for her to go into the cell. She obeyed and sat down in the chair on the far side of the cell. Raising the force-field, Optimus followed and seated himself across from her, resting his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands.

Respectfully she waited for Prime to begin the interrogation. She wasn't sure what methods he would use, but Terabyte began to carefully deactivate the majority of her pain relays in preparation. But he made no moves, just sat there, watching her intently, almost expectantly.

"Mighty Prime. Will you be performing the interrogation? Like I said before, I don't have much intel, but I will willingly answer your questions to the best of my ability." Terabyte said, shifting her armor nervously. If Optimus decided to get answers by force, she wouldn't last more than one Earth hour, if even that.

"I was hoping that you might volunteer some of what you know. It would make it much more pleasant for all involved."

Terabyte blinked, her frame relaxing of its own accord. Relief and panic rolled over her simultaneously. Soundwave had given her coding to hide parts of her processor from discovery so that a processor scan could be performed without revealing the more sensitive secrets of the Decepticons. She had prepared herself for all the traditional methods of interrogation, but this… Nothing could have prepared her for this.

She racked her processor for anything to offer in response, her mind suddenly blank from her initial surprise. Finally Optimus, apparently deciding that she wasn't going to provide answers on her own, began the questioning.

"What exactly was your rank and function in the Decepticon ranks?" His optics held a hint of sadness, though his voice was now firm and commanding.

"I worked under Soundwave in Communications. Low-rank. Main function was as a messenger." Terabyte answered instantly, finial faintly twitching. Half-truths were more becoming of her honor, at least compared to outright lies.

"Where are the Decepticons' headquarters?"

"Unknown, the base is mobile. They are flying the Nemesis, which is in a slight state of disrepair. Weapons and defensive systems are fully functional. The ship lands often for repairs and energon stock-piling."

The interrogation continued in that manner for just over two hours, Earth time. Terabyte answered truthfully for the most part, only lying when absolutely necessary and only if the subject was one that was very unlikely that the Autobots would ever find out for themselves. Many questions she simply answered by claiming ignorance. Getting up to leave, Optimus turned around and asked one final question.

"Is there anything else we ought to know about?"

She was about to shake her helm when the idea hit her. The Dark Energon. It was vitally important to the Autobots and, knowing the Lord Protector, Megatron would likely wish to show off its power to the Autobots as soon as possible anyway. Perfect!

"There is one thing Cliffjumper and I overheard Lord Megatron telling Starscream. Upon his return, he had brought back a large sample of a crystalline substance." Terabyte glanced up at the Prime, gauging his response. He nodded for her to continue, "It was Dark Energon. Many believe it to have near mystical powers, including the reanimation of the dead."

"Dark Energon… If this is true, our situation may be more dire than I believed…" Optimus said quietly, as if to himself. "The information you have provided will be very helpful to our cause. I will send someone down later with fuel."

Terabyte was still trying to work out why the Prime hadn't hurt her at all during the interrogation when, true to his word, later that rotation energon was brought to her by Cliffjumper.

"How's our local Decepticon doing?" He asked upon entering. Then he winced, as if just realizing how rudely that came across. In an ever-so-slightly more subdued tone, he continued, "I brought some energon for you."

Terabyte took the cube, glaring at it suspiciously. Now that she'd spilled 'all' she knew, there was no reason for them to keep her; she would only be a drain on their resources. She ran a scan on the energy, but the read out on her HUD detected no threats or foreign substances in it. Unconvinced, she refused to refuel, in spite of her fuel tank violently informing her of its emptiness.

"It's not poisoned, if that's what you're worried about." As if to prove his point, the mech raised the cube to his own lip-plates and took a sip.

When he failed to keel over in agony, Terabyte picked it up and drained half the cube, her optics never leaving Cliffjumper's face.

"Why did Prime send _you_?" She asked finally, taking another long sip of her energon.

"Is there something wrong with me?" He asked in mock hurt. "No, I volunteered."

"Why?"

"You were pretty good to me back there with the 'Cons… I just wanted to, I dunno, return the favor." He shrugged nonchalantly. "Anyway, you good? Need anything?"

Terabyte shook her helm. It was a prison cell, it wasn't exactly designed for comfort, but it was fine.

"Uh well, I need to disable your weapons, long-range communications and subspace systems… Standard procedure and whatnot."

"I'm not much of a threat to you, weapons or no… I really don't see why that's necessary…" She pulled away from him putting one hand over the control panel on her neck defensively. The idea of leaving herself that vulnerable sent a shiver crawling down her spinal struts.

"Don't make me hurt you to do this… I feel bad enough about this as is."

Terabyte studied Cliffjumper carefully; he _did_ seem rather reluctant… She didn't move from her position, and continued to shield the panel. She shook her helm stubbornly, vulnerability simply wasn't an option, she couldn't afford to trust the Autobots; they'd only stab her in the back when she wasn't looking. Terabyte ignored the small voice in her processor that wondered; how would she ever gain their trust if she never showed some first?

"We want to help you, really. We'll even give you a chance to defect. But we can't let you out if you refuse to be disarmed." His voice was sad and resigned, but he didn't push the matter further. "I'll bring more energon in the morning."

With that, the red, horned mech left her alone in the brig. After she'd finished the last of the energon, Terabyte settled down on the hard prison berth to recharge. No one checked in on her for the rest of the night.

Hearing an unearthly screech, followed by the worst sounds she'd ever heard, Terabyte bolted awake, looking around at her surroundings blearily. With the intent of investigating the cause of the audio shredding racket, Terabyte ran straight into the force-field only to bounce off and fall to the floor. Slightly dazed, but now fully awake, she remembered her situation.

What she wanted to know now, was what in the world that hideous noise was. Terabyte's processor throbbed as her sensitive audials were assaulted. Abruptly the sound ceased, leaving only the proximity alert that had been ringing in the background.

Curious, but having no way to ease that curiosity, Terabyte noticed the cube of energon that had been left on the table. Vaguely she guessed that Cliffjumper had brought it for her while she was still recharging. A minute stab of fear ran through her, but after running a self-diagnostic, Terabyte realized with a start that even though that would have been a perfect chance to disable her weapons and other systems, Cliffjumper had honored her wish to leave them online and remain in the cell. He hadn't taken advantage of finding her undefended, and neither had the others.

As she slowly drank her morning fuel, Terabyte ran this revelation through her logic centers multiple times, but each time the results were the same: The Autobots were not the evil brutes she had thought them to be.

But that wasn't possible, her spark screamed defiantly. The Autobots destroyed Protihex, killing hundreds of neutrals. Only someone truly despicable could have done that, which meant, logically, that the Autobots were despicable. Her processors slid back into harmony; the Autobots must be destroyed before more innocents suffer.

A couple of breems after the proximity alerts went silent, a new alarm sounded, this time a distress beacon. It was only a short time after that that Terabyte heard the ground bridge open. Then the base was wrapped in a thick blanket of silence. She figured that she was now the only person left at the Autobot HQ. Occasionally she heard Arcee's faint voice as she commed for a ground bridge, but there was nobody to answer.

Terabyte sat in her cell bored for quite a while before occupying her mind with the humans' internet. She researched human culture, military, and science. She even went so far as to watch a few of their shorter movies through her holo-projector, which helped to pass a significant amount of time.

She was just about to start another movie, when Terabyte heard the ground bridge open up again. From the sound of it, all the Autobots – and humans – were back. Not too happy either. Terabyte tried to listen in on what they were saying, but the brig was too far away and though she could hear their voices, she couldn't pick out the words.

Frustrated, immensely bored and still worried about what the Autobots would end up doing to her, Terabyte got up and started pacing along the front wall of the cramped cell. Maybe she ought to have let Cliffjumper disable her systems. At least then she wouldn't be stuck in this empty, uncomfortable and tiny cell, if the mech had even been telling the truth about that.

As she heard the ground bridge open up yet again, Terabyte wondered for the millionth time what was going on, and where the Autobots were getting enough power to use the bridge so often.

Once, Arcee passed by her cell on her way to somewhere. Terabyte looked up at the femme hopefully, but Arcee's only response was a low growl of her engine before continuing on her way. After that Terabyte stopped pacing and sat down again and stared at the floor, walls, and roof.

She really should have asked Cliffjumper for a datapad, or a book to read when he'd asked if she needed anything. Something to keep herself busy hadn't been on the list of things she'd considered at the time.

* * *

**A.N. Not much action here, but as a prisoner that is to be expected. Things will look up for Terabyte eventually! Until then, keep reading, reviewing, etc!**

**Also, thanks to my sister, enmused, for beta-reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Duty and Deceit**

**Chapter 5**

**Complications Arise**

_"__I accept your request, Terabyte. You will meet me here again next rotation after your last shift." His tone had been somewhere between an order and a question. Not sure which it was meant to be, she responded to both._

_"__I will be here, sir." So happy to have been accepted, she nearly forgot, "Thank you, sir. Very much, sir."_

_Throughout the whole rotation she had looked forward to her session with Skyquake. She wasn't disappointed._

_When she'd entered, Skyquake immediately stopped his own training and, abandoning the practice drone that he'd been about to tear apart, gestured for her to approach._

_Skyquake then asked her to show him all the moves her creators had taught her. It didn't take very long. Bullwing had listened to her femme creator, Tetrastar, and had not instructed her in anything except for a few defensive moves in the martial arts._

_"__Is that all you know?" Skyquake asked incredulously. "Alright. We will start at the beginning then. Try to copy my movements."_

_He didn't seem to think she would succeed, but began to move in a simple pattern, his bulky form blending from one position to the next in a surprisingly graceful manner, before finishing and returning to a standing position. He nodded to her and she mirrored the move, though nowhere near so smoothly, or without mistake._

_"__Do it again."_

_Complying, she started over only for Skyquake to interrupt her again._

_"__Hold your position." He walked up to her and gently grabbed her wrist. She stiffened at the touch and glanced up at him. He locked his optics on hers for a moment before she nodded. Skyquake tilted her hand slightly and moved it inward a few inches. "With your hands at that angle, your opponent would easily have been able to knock your blows aside. Try again."_

_She worked on the same move for another five breems with Skyquake continuing to gently correct her mistakes, explaining each time why the mistake would be harmful. Finally, the mech seemed satisfied with her performance of the move and they repeated the process with the next one._

_They continued the session for three groons then stopped. Her frame was warm from exertion, but she had a sense of accomplishment and confidence that she had not felt for more than a quartex._

_"__Skyquake, sir? When will I be expected to return?"_

_"__You are making good progress. I will see you here again on the seventh rotation of this orn. In the future, training sessions will take place four times in an orn; I will send a notification on the appropriate rotations." He looked at her, optics twinkling slightly, almost so that she didn't notice. "Between sessions I suggest that you practice."_

_And so it happened. She made sure that whenever she practiced she always did so in the same training room they used for the sessions though. During her 'practicing', she couldn't help but notice that the large mech was always nearby; ready to help her in any way needed._

* * *

She saw no one else until the end of the rotation, when Cliffjumper came once again with her fuel ration. Terabyte felt an urge to bombard him with the questions that had piled up in her processor over the course of the day, but somehow managed to restrain herself.

"You know Cliffjumper, the decorations in this place are severely lacking."

The red mech chuckled, "Sorry about that. You ready to have those systems disabled yet? Of course, we don't mind too much if you'd rather just sit and rust in here…"

Terabyte wondered if they would seriously let her out if she allowed her systems to be disabled. From what Cliffjumper was saying, they would; but Arcee had looked like she'd rather just rip Terabyte to shreds once she was defenseless.

Choosing to ignore his query, she asked instead, "Remember how you'd asked if I needed anything yesterday? Well, I've thought about it… Could I have a datapad? Or something to read?"

"Sorry girl. Nothing I can do about that either. Security reasons."

_'__How could giving me a _**_datapad _**_possibly make me more of security risk?! Seriously!' _Out loud she only said, "Oh. I see."

After sitting in awkward silence with her energon for several klicks, Terabyte let one of her questions loose, trying to maintain a casual tone. "I heard a lot of commotion this morning, what happened?"

For the next groon, Cliffjumper filled her in on the morning's events, first telling her how Optimus and Ratchet had left to investigate an ancient battle-field in the Grand Canyon area. Apparently when they got there, Megatron had raised the dead using the Dark Energon. The Prime and Ratchet had fought and somehow defeated the zombie army before Megatron flew off, warning them of his bigger plans.

Terabyte wondered just what the Lord Protector's bigger plans were exactly. With Dark Energon involved, no matter what the plan, it was bound to be nasty for the Autobots. She looked forward to seeing it; though not without a small amount of fear: as a 'defector' it could very well be nasty for her too…

While Prime and Ratchet were doing that, a government agent had come to base and discovered the human children. According to Cliffjumper, they had been the cause for the audial torture that morning, it was supposed to be their form of music. Cliffjumper wasn't exactly sure on all the details of what had happened, but in the end the man, Fowler was his name, left only to be captured by Laserbeak and taken to the Nemesis for questioning.

Bulkhead and the kids went to rescue him and met up with Cliffjumper, Arcee, and Bumblebee inside the ship. The three had gone straight to Bulkhead's position after discovering the base's emptiness when they returned from patrol. Terabyte listened as Cliffjumper gave a wild account of the battle that ensued when they were discovered. In the end, they retrieved Fowler, who was delirious from the torture, and the kids had somehow managed to bring back data from the Nemesis' bridge.

Cliffjumper said Ratchet was currently studying the data in an attempt to determine just what it was for, though they had identified it as engineering specs for something big.

When the red mech had finally finished, Terabyte was silent. She thought over all that she'd missed and filed it away into her memory files. Better to get it second-hand than not at all.

"Wow... That's a lot to process." the little black and dark blue femme said finally, unsuccessfully stifling a yawn. It was a little surprising that she could be so tired when she hadn't done anything.

"So... You never did answer my question... About your systems." Cliffjumper mentioned offhandedly.

"No, I didn't." She replied contentedly.

"So..." He prompted, sounding on the brink of annoyance.

"Good cycle, Cliffjumper." Her tone remained steadily unconcerned, and a small mischievous smile graced her lip-plates. Unbeknownst to her, Terabyte's optics twinkled merrily.

"Aww, c'mon! This is getting ridiculous! We've been nothing but kind to you this whole time! What makes you think that'll change?" Red hands went up in exasperation. "Besides, I trusted you to fix me up, you ought to trust me."

_'__Play __l__ogical __femme__ for a bit...' _She thought happily. She hadn't let herself have fun for a while.

"Your point is invalid. You never had a choice and-"

"You don't want to have a choice? Fine. Mr. Nice-guy's done."

_'Logic tactic: Failed.' _Her previous amusement slid away rapidly. This was not a mech to mess with.

Before she could react, the mech stormed up to her and tore off the armored panel on the back of her neck, exposing the wires to her communications network. Swiftly and skillfully Cliffjumper cut the appropriate wires, instantly disabling her systems.

As Terabyte felt the long-range sensors go offline, she realized suddenly that the mech was experienced with this. In fact, that probably was his job. Terabyte frowned in confusion; Why'd he wait so long?

While she puzzled over the question, Cliffjumper moved on to the next system and unlatched the prelim-armor on her right forearm. He then placed a security lock that rendered her dagger useless. After that, he locked her subspace and forcibly taking her cannon -painfully snapping the clamps that held it in place in the process- and stalked out of her cell.

"I was trying to avoid doing that. You should have cooperated." He told her, his voice hard, before he left without even a glance back at her.

Shocked, Terabyte slowly put each piece of armor that he'd torn away back on and set her self-repairs in action. She wasn't entirely sure why the usually nonchalant warrior had been so easily provoked, but it felt almost reassuring to her; that was how Autobots were supposed to act.

Her reassurance was slightly dimmed by the memory of his parting words. His voice had held an edge to it, as if his actions had actually hurt him. Pained and remorseful.

After thinking about it for a while, Terabyte laughed humorlessly. Even in showing their true colors, the Autobots couldn't help but maintain a few shreds of their facade of noble kindness.

"'We believe in peace for all' they tell you, even as they murder you in your sleep." She muttered darkly to herself.

Before shutting down for the night, Terabyte raised a proximity alarm that would wake her if anyone came with in ten meters of her. After that experience, she certainly didn't want any of the Autobots to find her shut down and helpless in recharge. Who knew what they would do to her.

* * *

_She was back in Protihex, in her family's mid-size apartment at the spire's peak. She could hear her sire's rumbling baritone, accompanied by her carrier's sweet crystal-clear soprano. Her own voice, similar to her carrier's, though slightly lower, blended with theirs as they sang one of their favorite Protihexian melodies together. Just like they always had._

_She knew in her processor that it was all a dream, but as she sat in her sire's warm embrace, feeling the rise and fall of his chassis with each vent, the thrum of his spark... She allowed herself to melt into its comfort anyway._

_The scent of Tetrastar's diamond roses wafted through the room, mingled with the noises of younglings playing in the levels below them. Watching the moons' light dancing on the walls, she focused on the words they sang; words she hadn't thought of in what felt like an eternity._

**_Ages come and ages go,_**

**_On and on an endless flow._**

**_Battles raging and victories won_**

**_Have no effects in sweet Protihex. _**

**_Storms around us, peace within,_**

**_Sparks of loved ones, sparks of kin,_**

**_Never lost, for all are one._**

**_One forever in each our sparks..._**

* * *

The proximity alert rang through her processor, jolting Terabyte awake and back into reality. It had been such a lovely dream... She growled angrily, according to her internal chronometer, it was the middle of the night cycle. Who had interrupted her sleep and why?

Terabyte jumped off the berth and trudged over to the front of the cell, armor flared in anger. Looking around, she located and identified the offender. Arcee; she was leaning on the far wall, shadows wrapped around her.

Automatically, Terabyte raised her left arm, only to lower the bare appendage quickly, her frame heating with embarrassment when she remembered that Cliffjumper had confiscated her cannon. Hopefully Arcee hadn't noticed that.

"Why?" The other femme asked coldly, the steely blue glow of her optics lighting her face-plate eerily.

"Why, what?" Terabyte snapped. Logic centers still sluggish, Terabyte lashed out. "By all rights _I _should be asking _you_! Whatever you wanted could have waited till morning! But _no... _you had to come in here, in the _middle of the night_, and disturb my recharge to ask me _stupid_ questions!"

Luckily, Terabyte managed to snap her vocalizer off with hiss of static before the fact that all she wanted was to go back to her dream slipped out in her ranting. Arcee could never be allowed to know that, it would only be a weakness.

"'By all rights' you have no rights." the blue and pink femme retorted, taking a menacing step forward. Terabyte could almost feel the tension in the Autobot's slender frame. After a few moments of simmering silence, she rephrased her demand, "Why did you save him?"

Taken slightly aback by the pure fury thinly veiled by her cold tone, Terabyte's vocalizer seemed to go on autopilot, spewing the predetermined cover story she'd memorized.

"I'd considered defecting to the Autobots for many quartex, ever since Cybertron began to die. But I was always too scared to. If I got caught, I'd have been executed for treason. Then we captured Cliffjumper, and I saw my chance. I repaired him little by little and when an opportunity arrived, I removed the low-level dampening field on him so you could detect his energy signal. You were there for the rest."

"I don't care how it happened! I asked you why!" She said, her voice rising to somewhere just below a yell. Battle blades slid out of Arcee's forearms, the razor sharp edges glinting in the faint light.

"I wanted to defect! I got sick of fighting for a dead cause!" Terabyte yelled in response, annoyance escalating into defensive aggression as Arcee adopted a more threatening posture. Though Terabyte's voice grew louder and angrier, her dark armor could be seen to flatten marginally against her frame.

"You're a 'Con! You're not supposed to save people. All you do is kill; War is sport to you!" As she spoke, the femme swung her arms through the air fast enough that the air hissed around the exposed blades with each swing.

"And you're an Autobot! YOU aren't supposed to hate people just because of the insignia they wear!"

At that reminder the slightly taller Autobot femme's entire frame sagged and the battle blades retracted, her next angry accusation audibly dying in her vocalizer. Terabyte glared at her, a smug, victorious smile tugging at her mouth in spite of her slight fear of the warrior femme. It was probably a very good thing that Arcee couldn't see past the mask.

"Why didn't you kill him?" Arcee asked again, no longer shouting, but pacing agitatedly instead.

"I told you. He gave me a way out that actually had a chance of succeeding." Terabyte tanks churned at the traitorous words, but she determinedly maintained the masquerade.

Her golden optics followed Arcee's steps warily; her own aggressive stance relaxing towards mere caution at what seemed to indicate the near-end of the Autobot femme's outburst.

"So he's just a tool to you?" Or not... the taller two-wheeler's voice rose back to the previous volume and her pacing stopped abruptly.

Attempting to formulate an answer that would satisfy the other femme and drawing an incredibly unhelpful blank, Terabyte didn't answer.

"What did you do to him? Why does he trust you?" Her tone was biting and accusatory. Blue optics locked with gold; the unspoken challenge making Terabyte's armor clamp down against her protoform even further.

The annoyance of her interrupted dream was forgotten and replaced with intimidation and the need for self-preservation. Arcee's ability to break through her outward wall of calm only served to intensify Terabyte's inner fears.

"I didn't _do _anything to him! If he trusts me, your guess is as good as mine why."

"You shouldn't have saved him. He's _my _partner, and it was _my_ job to save him! You should have left him alone. You'll NEVER be an Autobot!"

"What-? I wasn't... I never- That's absurd!" She sputtered as the reality of Arcee's own fears hit her in full force.

Arcee stormed out, completely deaf to her protests, leaving Terabyte to sit in the solitary silence that now seemed more deafening than any words could. Try as she might, Terabyte didn't fall back into recharge; her dream slipping away into no more than a vague, mistily comforting memory.

* * *

**A.N. Hello everybody! Lot of dialogue here... Not so easy to write as one might think...**

**Please keep in mind that any relationship between Cliffjumper and Terabyte is strictly as friends/siblings. This should be pretty clear, but I thought I'd mention it, just to be safe.**

**Neon: Thank you so so so much for your many reviews! They really brighten my day and provide a different perspective that is very helpful.**

**I thank you all in advance for reviewing, favorite-ing and commenting! Also, credit goes to enmused for suggesting the Arcee/Terabyte encounter and being a huge help as my beta.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Duty and Deceit**

**Chapter 6**

**A Change of Standing**

_Orns had passed into vorns and she found herself spending most of her time with Skyquake. For some reason, she felt attached to the huge green jet. Maybe it was because he reminded her of her sire, Bullwing... she still wasn't entirely sure why she liked him._

_It had taken a long time, but he had finally begun to warm up to her._

_Nearly a vorn after her arrival, she noticed subtle changes in how he acted towards her. The more relaxed way he held his wings, his rare jokes popping around more often, the ever-so-slight quirk of his lip-plates whenever she talked to her console (which, since he still didn't talk much, she usually did a lot...)..._

_Eventually, Skyquake had returned her friendship and acted himself around her._

_She figured she probably knew the jet better than any other mech alive. Which was really saying something, since even then she didn't know him very well. She had been immensely surprised when she discovered Skyquake's sense of humor in full throttle. He was a master of deadpan and dry remarks, but his Starscream impersonations trumped all._

* * *

"_Mighty Megatron, you know that your voice is like the sweetest music to my unworthy audios…" Skyquake recited, his low rumbling voice somehow pitched in the perfect high whine characteristic of the Air Commander._

"_No… He didn't really say that did he?" She asked incredulously, a morbid grin tugging on her mouth as she considered what Megatron's response would no doubt have been. Skyquake nodded, his ruby optics shining._

_As they continued down the corridor, Skyquake rested his hand on her shoulder, still relating Starscream's latest report of yet another botched mission. Her attention was slightly divided as she tried to ignore her screaming back and pede struts; the weight of Skyquake's relaxed servo being a bit much for her slender frame to support._

"…_And at that point, Lord Megatron's optics are starting to fritz and his fists and denta are clenched so tightly I could almost hear his own armor buckling under the strain…"_

"_Uh… Skyquake? If you don't move your hand, you'll be hearing __**my**__ armor buckling…" She said chuckling in a now-somewhat-strained manner. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to have heard her; he was too caught up in the story-telling by that point._

_A couple mechs that were with them in the corridor were staring and chuckling at her predicament. None of them could be bothered to help her out though; the scene was too entertaining to be worth interrupting the hulking green jet. Resigning herself to the inevitable, she turned her full attention back to Skyquake._

"…_and Starscream's down on his knee struts, begging for his spark. 'Great Leader! Spare your most humble and faithful servant! Your wish is my command; I won't fail you again-!" Skyquake mimicked, his wings trembling comically to accompany the Starscream voice._

_In spite of herself, she snickered at the dramatic expression and posture Skyquake had assumed in his mockery. The number of observers had increased as they were now in the mess hall. She was a little bit surprised that the large green mech beside her hadn't raised his usual facade; generally he'd revert to dull military commander mode in public._

"…_You wouldn't believe how badly Lord Megatron pounded him. When he was finished he ordered me to carry Starscream to medical. It took nearly a groon just to convince Knockout that the pile of scrap I'd brought in was actually Starscream!" Skyquake roared with laughter, patting her shoulder 'lightly'._

_Skyquake turned to the femme that was now on the floor beside his pedes. He began to worry when she didn't move or respond in any way._

"_Uh… Terabyte?" He knelt down and nudged her lightly. The blue and black femme rolled over limply, and Skyquake noticed that her bio-lights had dimmed; indicating that she was unconscious. The jet groaned in dismay. "Oh. Not again… I really need to stop doing that…"_

* * *

When Cliffjumper never came with her energon, Terabyte began to worry that the other Autobots were of the same opinion as Arcee. They'd already gotten all the information they thought she had… Maybe now they were going to get rid of her. Especially since she was now vulnerable. Would they exile her? Put her in permanent stasis lock? Just kill her outright?

Her worries only escalated when she saw Ratchet coming down the corridor. His armor had a concerned sort of flare to it, but Terabyte's own fears blinded her to that fact. The medic mutely shut down the force-field and entered.

Frame gone stiff, Terabyte backed away from the much taller mech. She fought the urge to clamp down her armor. She drew a small comfort from the fact that her consistently flared armor gave the impression of being a bit larger than she really was.

Ratchet seemed slightly pained by her obvious fear of him, but Terabyte's processor discarded the observation without much consideration. As the medic came closer, Terabyte felt her dorsal plating lie flat against the cold steel wall of the prison cell. Instinct drove her movements now, medics knew too much; Ratchet could tear her apart piece by piece with knowledge of exactly where to attack to create the most pain. She'd had enough bad experiences with medics to know.

The Decepticons were fighting for a good cause, but no medic – be it Decepticon, Autobot, or even neutral – could be trusted. Terabyte raised her hands into a defensive position, preparing herself to fight for her spark.

"Oh don't be daft. I'm not going to attack you." Ratchet grumbled.

She stared at him distrustfully, not altering her stance. "You're a _medic_."

"I'm not one of your 'Con butchers. I don't hurt mechs, I fix them." He said, raising his own arms non-threateningly. He took a small step back, still between her and the only exit.

"I don't care what your faction is. It makes no difference; you're a medic." Terabyte spat. How dare he assume that the Decepticons were the only medics untrustworthy? Medics would do anything to save their own chassis. Their only loyalties were to themselves.

"Fine; you'll figure it out later. I don't have time to make you trust me. Hold out your arms, I'm going to restrain you." While he spoke he pulled out a set of energy cuffs. Not nearly as effective as stasis cuffs, they allowed for semi-free movements. However, they also could send a jolt of electricity through the wearer's frame causing temporary paralysis by the press of button.

"Why...?" Having felt the energy discharge of that kind of cuff before, Terabyte was understandably reluctant to comply. That and he was a medic, her processor reminded her stubbornly. A small part of her frowned on her single-track thought pattern. Normally she would consider the reasonable options, but this was different. They could not be trusted and no amount of reasoning could change that.

"A high casualty rate is expected when the team returns. The repairs you did on Cliff' were... done relatively well... so I would assume you have a basic understanding of medical procedures. In short, your assistance is required. Now hold out your arms." The medic begrudgingly acknowledged her skills, but his voice never wavered from the gruff grouchiness.

His temper, obviously having a very short fuse, seemed to be running out uncomfortably fast. Terabyte held out her arms and allowed the medic to restrain her, fearing what he would do if she didn't.

"These restraints will allow a small range of motion. With this device," Ratchet held up a small box with several controls, including a large red button over which his finger was hovering. "I can send-"

"An electrical pulse through my frame which will temporarily paralyze me. I'm familiar with standard restraints. You mentioned a probability of casualties, sir?" Terabyte interrupted, eager to just get on with it.

Ratchet grunted and led her to the ground-bridge chamber, watching her closely the whole time. Once in the chamber, the red and white mech ordered her to place her hand on one of the medical berths. As soon as she had, he magnetized the berth, effectively making sure Terabyte wouldn't be going anywhere.

Terabyte scowled at the medic's rather crude methods. She tried at first to see what Ratchet was doing at the console on the upper level, but from her position couldn't get a clear line of sight. Her arm was twisted in a rather uncomfortable angle, so Terabyte shifted to sit on the berth, allowing her to relax her arm in a more natural way. With no way of leaving due to her magnetized hand, Terabyte waited; swinging her pedes back and forth idly over the edge of the too big berth.

Ratchet was talking to someone over a comm. link. She was still somewhat confused as to why the Autobots all _spoke_ into their comms. It wasn't like it was necessary; the communications all came through visually on their HUDs... Probably some weird Autobot form of courtesy.

The ground-bridge activated suddenly, and Terabyte stood up from where she had sat down on the berth, preparing to be the medical aid that Ratchet needed. If she could help, there was a chance that she could at least gain the benefit-of-the-doubt. Any amount of progress in her status would be welcomed.

The small blue and black femme watched the humans run through and head straight up to where Ratchet was working. Terabyte relaxed and sat back down. As she sat and waited, she imagined all the different things that she could have been- or was obviously missing out on. Terabyte sighed after a breem of contemplations that had become less and less likely and more and more fantastical. There was nothing she hated more than being kept out of the loop. She _needed_ to know what was going on!

Just then the ground-bridge activated again, bringing Terabyte instantly to her feet once more. She winced a little as her arm twisted too fast; she'd forgotten about that... This time it was the Autobots that came through, Bumblebee holding an unconscious Arcee. Optimus Prime was also looking rather beat up, but aside from that there were only minor scuffs and dents.

Miko, Raf, and Jack all ran to their guardians, greeting them and making sure they were alright. Terabyte felt her hand come free from the berth as Bumblebee laid Arcee down. She glanced at Ratchet, who had seemingly materialized next to the berth and was scanning the other femme carefully.

"Start taking care of the others' repairs." Ratchet told her, glaring at Cliffjumper as he spoke. "And for goodness' sake, Cliffjumper! Go _away_! I can't work with you hovering in my way!"

"You're not making Jack move." The red mech pouted, crossing his arms and standing stubbornly in place.

"Jack is only 5'9". You are about four times that. And he's not being a nuisance. Now go away."

Intervening before Cliffjumper could continue arguing, Terabyte grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him away from where Arcee lay limp. Using the small magnetic tool she'd picked up from Ratchet's table, Terabyte slowly and carefully worked out the dents in Cliffjumper's red armor.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" He asked her quietly, wincing as a particularly large dent popped out.

"I'm not a medic. I wouldn't know." Terabyte shrugged, "She'll probably be-"

"Jack, really. There are other motorcycles in the world." Arcee's voice interrupted her mid-sentence. Terabyte turned toward where the femme had woken up and was now looking at Jack with a little smirk. The other femme sat up slowly, moving carefully so she didn't knock Jack off of the Cybertronian berth.

Cliffjumper was at Arcee's side helping the blue and pink femme to her feet in seconds.

Once he was sure Arcee was recovering nicely and in good hands, Ratchet looked at the Prime questioningly. "And Megatron?"

"Not even he could have survived ground zero."

Her spark clenched, and her engine choked loudly. Lord Megatron... Dead? That couldn't be true. Ground zero; that meant the Autobots blew something up... They had gotten schematics for the space-bridge... Terabyte's processor slowly connected all the dots, leaving her to stare at the Prime in disbelief. Of course the Autobots would have blown it up but...How could Megatron be dead? What would happen to the Decepticons now? A new voice cut into her thoughts, bringing her out of her stupor.

"Prime. I didn't get to thank you bots for the save. I owe you one. We all do."

She located the speaker just as he left the building. It was a full-grown human, slightly on the heavy side - she assumed so anyway, Terabyte hadn't had much interaction with humans - with dark skin and a gray suit. She guessed that the man was the one they'd called Fowler. He must have woken from the delirious state Cliffjumper had mentioned.

"So is this the part where you say goodbye and tell us we need to forget we ever saw you?" Miko asked Optimus.

"A little late for that isn't it?" Bulkhead asked hopefully. Optimus nodded in agreement.

When the conversation seemed to be falling towards less important things, Terabyte returned to her thoughts. With Megatron's death, the Decepticons would be without strong leadership. Starscream would be in charge, and who knew how much he would want to change. Terabyte doubted Soundwave would let Starscream lead her people into chaos. Soundwave was far to loyal to Megatron to allow his memory to be so dishonored as the Air Commander no doubt wanted. She would need to report as soon as possible to confirm her mission and be briefed on any alterations that may be made though. How she would manage that remained uncertain.

"Terabyte." Optimus's voice drew her attention back to the present once again. The little femme looked up at the Autobot leader guardedly, though not without proper respect. "With the loss of your leader, the Decepticons will be in chaos, am I right?"

Terabyte nodded slowly, wondering just where the Prime was going. Surely it was too soon for them to offer defection? But if they were… that would be a huge step forward. But it was still too soon; what did they really want from her?

"This will certainly change your standing with the Decepticons." He paused as if to gauge her reaction to his words before continuing, "It is time for you to make a decision: Will you leave the Decepticons and join our cause or will you return to the Nemesis?"

She blinked. They would let her go? Yeah right… "I have a choice?" She scoffed, gesturing to the six Autobots around her, most of them nearly half again her size.

"We will not stop you if you wish to leave. You do not know the coordinates of our base, you are not a threat." Terabyte repressed a shudder at the Prime's confidence in that fact. "We are also willing to give you a chance to change your ways; to defect."

Already knowing how she would answer in spite of her suspicion – the Autobots may have given her a chance to go home, but her mission did not allow her that option – Terabyte stalled to give the impression of carefully considering the offer. She stared at her angled pedes, scuffing the floor thoughtfully. Finally she decided that she'd 'thought' about it long enough and raised her helm determinedly.

"I wish to defect."

Optimus Prime's optics lit up with an emotion Terabyte couldn't quite name, and then he made one last offer, though his voice had a slightly dull monotonous ring that suggested it was only for record's sake.

"It will not be an easy process. You cannot expect us to blindly trust you, and your status will remain that of a paroled prisoner until you have proven yourself earnest." He warned, taking a step toward her.

Every wire in her frame screamed for Terabyte to back away, but stiffening her minutely mechly – in that they splayed outward at the knees – pedes, the two-wheeler stood her ground, maintaining a submissive posture. In order to succeed, she needed to be cooperative.

"If I may ask, what are the conditions of this parole? Sir?"

"Ratchet will place a small tracking device on you. Your location will be monitored closely at all times. You will not be allowed to go anywhere without an escort, and we will expect you to follow any and all orders without argument. Until our trust has been earned, you will not have access to any subspace, weapons, or communications systems except when on patrol." As he spoke, the scarlet and blue mech removed her restraints, giving them to Cliffjumper to put away until needed again.

"So I will be sent on patrols? With an escort, of course." She hastily tacked on the last bit, so they wouldn't misunderstand her motives. If they were to misunderstand, it would mean that her true intent would be suspected.

"Yes. Your first patrol will be fourth rotation next orn at 0900. Now, are the terms of your parole understood? Any infringement of these terms will result in your returning to the brig until further notice. Is that clear?"

Terabyte glanced over at the other Autobots. Bumblebee and Bulkhead were talking with the kids happily, though she noticed that they were also paying close attention to the Prime's words.

Cliffjumper was very studiously polishing his scratch-free shoulder guard while Arcee glared at the 'ex-Decepticon' femme mutinously. Obviously she didn't agree with Optimus' decision, and occasionally said something to Cliff' about it. The red warrior's only response to her comments was to polish a bit harder.

Ratchet was nowhere to be seen, but Terabyte guessed that he was preparing the tracking device for implanting. She briefly wondered if the procedure would hurt much. Not that it mattered, she would go through it either way.

"I understand, sir. All my actions will be monitored and restricted. Suspicious activities will result in incarceration. I will strive to earn your trust, and I will obey any and all orders." Terabyte's voice was neutrally submissive as she summarized the conditions that the Prime had laid out for her.

The success of her mission depended on these next orns. Her work had begun at last. There was no backing out now; she could not fail.

* * *

**A.N. Hurray! Another chapter done! How are you guys liking the story so far? Comments, reviews and constructive criticism is very much welcome!**

**Oh… Poor Skyquake! I'm really enjoying writing those little flashbacks! **

**I don't know, would you call this a cliffie? I suppose most all of my chapters have been cliffhangers though, so you're all pretty much used to this right? Cliffies make me feel so powerful… Mhuahahaha! *awkward silence* Ahem... Sorry about that. ;P**

**Neon: I really liked the poem; it's quite fitting. Thanks for sharing your opinions! As for me, I've always had a soft spot for the 'bad' guys, hence Terabyte. **


	7. Chapter 7

**Duty and Deceit**

**Chapter 7**

**Strict Freedom**

_She raced down the streets in her Cybertronian alt-mode: a sleek, angular bike with two rear tires. Her headlights lit the road in front of her as she sped through the south district of Kaon; towards the emergency medical center._

_When she arrived, the little femme ran to the receptionist and demanded entrance to room thirty-seven beta. The receptionist was a silver-colored small – meaning only a helm taller than her – civilian mech. But she didn't particularly care after a dozen attempts - of varying politeness - to gain entry. _

_She stomped around the counter and lifted the light-weight mech a few inches off the ground, her desperation fueling her strength. Shaking the mech harshly, she asked him one last time._

"_I can't! I'm sorry! The doc will have my helm if I let you in!" The mech whined pathetically as she shook him._

_Her patience worn far too thin, the spy femme slammed his helm into the wall. He crumpled to the floor in a silver heap. She didn't take the time to check if he was conscious or not before she ran to thirty-seven beta._

_At the end of the correct corridor, she nearly ran into Shadowlight, a femme with monotone armor; one of the medical staff. _

"_Is he going to be alright? I received a message saying that Commander Skyquake was badly injured. The message stated that his life-signs were going critical." Miraculously, she managed to keep her tone neutral, that of a slightly concerned subordinate. Later that orn she had tried to figure out how she had done so, but no answer came. Thank the Allspark for small mercies._

"_He's stabilized. You can visit the commander if you like, but he is resting." The jet femme replied calmly._

"_Thanks."_

_She entered the surgical bay slowly, immediately catching a glimpse of Skyquake. Her tanks churned painfully at the sight of twisted and charred armor. There was also a huge amount of newly replaced armor, the dull unpainted gray clashing with his army green. The amount of damage he'd sustained was sickening._

_After three rotations, Skyquake was discharged from the medical center and put on light duty. During those three rotations, she stayed with Skyquake while he recharged, not even leaving for fuel. He only woke up once in that time and he didn't stay awake for very long._

"_Optimus... battle at Technahar... unsuccessful. Failed..." He had muttered upon waking, though not fully awake._

"_Skyquake!" Her excitement and worry laced her voice as she grabbed his hand in both of hers; rank all but forgotten."Thank goodness you're alright. What happened?" Her tone grew dark, "Who did this to you?"_

"_'erabyte..." The mech gave a contented sigh and fell back into recharge, a tiny smile touching his face-plates. Still holding his hand in hers, she smiled at Skyquake before her own exhaustion from her race across Kaon finally caught up to her. _

_When Shadowlight entered to check on them a few groons later, she found Skyquake deep in recharge with the Prussian blue femme still sitting in the chair beside his berth. The little two-wheeler was collapsed and recharging peacefully against the mech's arm._

* * *

It wasn't long after her conversation with the Prime that Ratchet was ready to implant the tracking device. Although Terabyte was still wary of the medic, she obediently followed Ratchet to the med-bay.

"Where will the tracking device be placed, Medic?" She asked slowly as she sat on the designated berth. Terabyte's gaze locked onto the small device in his hands; it didn't look dangerous, neither did the tools the red and white medic was holding. That didn't necessarily mean anything though.

"Under your dorsal plating." The mech motioned for her to lay front-first on the berth.

Reluctantly Terabyte obeyed and lay down and braced herself for the no doubt painful procedure to begin. She shouldn't have her back to a medic. She'd have to have a death wish... But here she was. Her frame was incredibly stiff and her systems were beginning to overheat, but she refused to cycle air any faster. Sensing the medic's approach, she would have tensed further if it had been physically possible.

"Would you like to be offlined for this?" Ratchet's voice was surprisingly gentle, but the suggestion only terrified the little spy further. Who was to say they wouldn't just leave her off? They would be able to do any number of things to her and she'd never know.

"No!" Terabyte took in a deep draft of air and vented it slowly to compose herself. "No, I'll stay_ on_line, thanks."

Ratchet nodded, though she couldn't see the action. She felt his fingers pry open the control panel between her shoulder wheels. Moments after that, Terabyte felt her whole frame relax against her will; she had been immobilized. Her armor lay against her protoform in a way that made her feel small and vulnerable. She rarely _didn't_ have her armor flared at least a little bit. The only mech she truly relaxed around was Skyquake.

Terabyte repressed a low whine of her engine; she had agreed to cooperate, and she _would_ keep her word. She could feel everything that Ratchet did, though it bothered her that she couldn't tell what he was actually doing. She felt him remove a section of her armor from the center of her back, and then attach the device to one of her spinal struts.

Soon the installment was complete and the tracking device's signal registered on her HUD. Ratchet closed her up and re-mobilized Terabyte's frame. She sat up, instantly rearranging her armor back to her liking. The device was small enough that it couldn't be felt unless she tried, however the signal it sent was rather annoying.

"I'm not finished yet." The medic said quietly, pulling a hand-sized hub from his subspace.

She recognized the object instantly and recoiled at what it suggested. It allowed for a one way sync with someone's processor; providing safety only to the mech performing the scan. Ratchet was going to scan her... But what for? Why now? Seeming to read her thoughts – which if she cooperated with the scan, he would be able to – Ratchet supplied the answer to her questions.

"Your malware and antiviral systems will attack the foreign material. To make sure that doesn't happen I need to adjust those systems. There's only one way to do that." He held up a small cord and looked down at the hub.

Knowing that she had to connect to the device first, Terabyte pulled out her own cord and stared at it like it was something disgusting. With a resigned sigh, she plugged it into the proper slot, bracing herself for the inevitable helm-ache and mental intrusion that would soon begin.

Ratchet likewise plugged his cord in and hardly an astro-second later Terabyte's firewalls had automatically risen and her processor was filled with the pressure of Ratchet's mind. The small femme let out a half-stifled gasp; she'd never been on the receiving end of a processor sync, normally she just hacked her Autobot prisoners' minds. It was different when it was her mind being invaded, and it hurt more than she'd imagined it could.

_'Lower your firewalls or I'll have to hack in.' _Ratchet thought to her. Disgust rolled through her processor from the medic; the idea of hacking her was apparently unpleasant to him.

Terabyte lowered the firewalls as ordered, giving an involuntary shudder as his mental presence flooded her now-unshielded mind. Instinctual panic was followed by anger at her own lack of mental restraint filled her thoughts, no doubt Ratchet could feel every passing feeling, every wisp of her innermost secrets now laid bare.

Struggling to clear her mind, Terabyte was horrified to find her thoughts only clarifying. Feeling as though her very spark had been opened up to the medic, abject terror sunk in to her core. In her panic, her processors conjured up a replica of her home; she was in her territory now.

All reason abandoned, the little two-wheeler raced through the streets of Protihex before it was demolished, finding her favorite spot as a youngling. The illusion filled her mind, and as Terabyte hid in the center of the jade forest she could feel Ratchet's awe wash over her.

The scent of the wild crystal flowers and the gentle song of the wind through the branches. Now in a familiar place, she was able to calm down and listen to reason. Raising a thick, impenetrable barrier of distrust around herself as she curled up into a defensive ball in her mind, her thoughts were masked from the intruder. The medic made no attempts to speak to her for a while as she regained her mental composure. Finally when she felt her thoughts were restrained enough, Terabyte addressed Ratchet with an empty tone.

_'I apologize sir. Where do you need to go?' _

_'You ask as though you had a choice. I could just find it myself.' _Ratchet countered, although he seemed to radiate sorrowful compassion.

Terabyte scoffed at the plainly false compassion. As if a medic could have a spark. She didn't care if Ratchet could hear her opinion of him; she'd already made it clear. Autobots maybe she could learn to trust, but a medic? Never.

This last line of thought was added on to deceive Ratchet into thinking it was mostly him that she didn't trust. He wouldn't be able to see her hatred towards all Autobot kind, Soundwave had known she couldn't repress that entirely and had put appropriate precautions.

_'Fine then. Go ahead and fragment my processor, it's not like I could defend myself. You supposedly don't hurt the defenseless; that's why I'm defecting. You're supposed to be the good guys.' _Her mental tone was falsely saddened, her true thoughts locked away by Soundwave's undetectable shield. It was too bad that his shield hadn't hidden more of her emotion.

_'I need access to your internal defense programming. I will wait for you to make a path.' _Her antipathy seemed to have hurt the medic; his pain was only partially veiled. Terabyte felt almost sorry for the mech, he seemed so... used to being despised.

Shaking her helm, she put a golden highlight through the imagined jade forest leading to her old school building where her core programming was located. Her mind was nearly a perfect replica of Protihex, though here and there the details were faded and blurred. Places she couldn't remember were shrouded with a thick fog.

Ratchet followed her path slowly, gazing on her home city in the height of its glory. She could feel that he was more than a little impressed by the intricate illusion that was her processor. Terabyte couldn't help but feel a smug sense of pride. Her mind was all that remained of Protihex.

Editing her program was a simple enough procedure and, busy with the task, little more passed between them. Soon Ratchet withdrew from her mind and the dull ache that had begun pounding through her helm a few breems ago now threatened to overwhelm her. Movements sluggish, Terabyte detached herself from the device and laid her helm in her hands, caressing her helm gently.

She looked up quickly – and rather painfully – when she felt the medic slip something into her wrist. Watching him warily she moved to remove whatever it was when the aching was considerably blunted. Pain chip. Relief and exhaustion swept through her and Terabyte lowered helm to the table, shuttering her optics and taking in a deep draft of cool air.

"That was your first sync wasn't it?"

Terabyte lifted her gaze slowly send a withering glare at the red and white mech as he watched her sympathetically. After almost a klick, she returned her helm to the table and groaned quietly. Let him think what he wanted.

Soundwave of course had synced with her – he did with all his subordinates, to install higher security firewalls – but she was positive it hadn't been like that. Although, when she really thought about it, she couldn't remember much at all about that sync. Just that it wasn't unpleasant. Terabyte vaguely wondered if the gap in her memory ought to worry her, but it didn't; not really.

"I was unprepared. Hacking someone's processor is very different from being hacked." She muttered. "Are you done _now_?"

Hearing a grunt that she took to mean yes, Terabyte stood up slowly and walked out of the medical area, eager to get away from the medic. Medics always brought pain. It was better to just do things herself; she could trust herself.

* * *

**Mid-afternoon of the next rotation**

After a good recharge, she had recovered almost completely. Terabyte had returned to her cell for the night, supposedly because her living arrangements had yet to be decided. She figured it was more likely that they just felt better with her locked away; the spy doubted the arrangement would change for quite some time.

She was standing quietly in the back of the room watching Bulkhead and Bumblebee play a video game with Miko and Raf when Cliffjumper approached. The humans had brought it, a game called Call of Duty. Terabyte wondered that the human younglings would enjoy such a war-like form of entertainment; the inhabitants of Earth truly were a blood-thirsty race.

Cybertronian sparklings and younglings certainly didn't 'play' by mercilessly murdering virtual versions of themselves… Or at least she never had… Her creators tried to keep her far away from anything related to war. They didn't want her to get involved. Terabyte often wondered if they'd still be proud of her; she hoped they would understand why she had to. After Protihex she hadn't had a choice... Had she?

"So… How's it going?" Cliffjumper asked casually. He had walked over next to her and was now leaning against the wall watching – as she was – the two Autobots and their charges play. Every now and then one of them would find another, which was generally followed by simulated gunfire and a exaggerated groan from the victim.

"Oh, fine." Terabyte replied sarcastically, "I'm really enjoying how much mechs have welcomed me. Being treated like I don't exist is just loads of fun."

If Cliffjumper surprised by her response, he did a very good job of hiding it. Ignoring her bad mood he gave her a winning smile, "My dear femme, may I have the honor of showing you the delights of our humble abode."

"Um. That would be… nice?" Her voice hinted at an unspoken 'I hope?' The memory of her recent encounter with the mech made her remain slightly cautious. But she'd give him a chance. Maybe this was his way of trying to make up for that.

"Right this way then, my lady."

Terabyte raised an optic ridge at him as he made a dramatic bow before leading her through a corridor. Cliffjumper's disregard of all things normal would definitely take getting used to. He didn't seem to care that she was a prisoner, or that she'd not even been there for an orn.

Try as she did not to, Terabyte quite enjoyed the tour of the Autobot's base – as well as Cliffjumper's company. The mech spoke almost non-stop, but as she had nothing really to say, Terabyte didn't mind too much. The base wasn't really all that big, but his descriptions made even the near-empty cargo holds into things of great interest. Every room had its own story and Cliffjumper was determined to tell her all of them.

When they had almost made the circuit of the base, Terabyte began to wonder where the other Autobots were. The Prime was out on patrol, so his absence was no surprise, but the tour had taken at least a groon – Terabyte hadn't bothered to check her chronometer – surely they would have at least seen Ratchet or Arcee?

Of course, as soon as Terabyte decided to ask, they ran into Arcee… literally.

* * *

**A.N. Oooh that is so mean of me… But what will happen next? Will it be another explosion of Arcee's wrath? We shall have to wait and see… As usual, huge thanks to everyone who reviews!  
**

**Note- The following characters are property of Subterraneangem (a.k.a: Me). My OC's are not to be used without my permission. Ever.**

**Shadowlight- Can't decide if we'll see more of her or not. For right now I just wanted to use her because I liked her name.**

**Tetrastar and Bullwing- Terabyte's parents. They'll be popping around as such throughout the story. **

**Terabyte- Of course.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Duty and Deceit**

**Chapter 8**

**Crisis**

"_This is important!" The voice of one of the higher ups shouted through Soundwave's recording. The mech's voice that was being used sounded like one of the drill sergeants. Maybe Sixshot? No longer using audial, she turned her gaze to her department head's holo-projection._

_It showed an Autobot base in Kalis from an aerial view; probably taken by Laserbeak or one of the other flying cassettes. The image zoomed in to the ground, showing an intricate defence grid, with several patrols in strategic positions. She examined the zone quickly and thoroughly before it moved on. Her mission was simple, yet would test all of her skills. _

_The little femme had gone on such missions before, but this time it was a rescue and a sabotage that she was to perform. To make matters worse, she wouldn't be going solo; she had a field medic assigned to her and another femme to act as the medic's bodyguard in case the captured mech was injured. At least she would be in charge. As long as she was in charge, the mission would be successful. The mech they were rescuing was one of their best spies, Makeshift. He had been posing as an Autobot commander, but was discovered when the real commander returned from his 'peace negotiations' early. Makeshift was also her mentor – everything she knew about her job, she'd learned from him - so she was determined to succeed. _

_When the photo of her assigned partner appeared on Soundwave's projection, the spy recognized her instantly; it was the femme from medical - Shadowlight? - that had looked after Skyquake. The other one came up as well but she didn't recognize her. She wasn't entirely sure why it was an all-femme team, but she guessed it probably had something to do with femmes being smaller, that and they all had dark paint jobs. They could sneak around much easier._

* * *

_The two-wheeler looked the two jets over quickly. They would be dispatched for the mission in five klicks. Both the femme jets were tall and thin, characteristic of Seekers. Their paint jobs were incredibly similar only inverted. Shadowlight was mostly silvery gray with black accents, while the other one was black with silvery gray accents. Although their alt-modes were different, they had almost identical features._

"_You two are sisters?" the Prussian blue femme asked, though the answer was pretty well obvious._

"_Yes ma'am." The black one answered smartly._

"_And your name is...?"_

"_Darkshine, ma'am."_

"_Ok, seriously. Cut it out with the 'ma'am' ing, please. If you need to address me, Terabyte will do just fine." She smiled behind her mask. It was kind of strange for an older femme to call her ma'am; she hadn't expected her promotion to Specialist would have put her above so many. Apparently some people were just fine with being ordinary grunts._

* * *

_**Final stages of the mission. Rotation 3 off base.**_

"_'S__hine, get down! You'll be-"_

_Laser fire blasted the air above her helm as she ducked out of the way. "-Sighted." She finished with a sigh. For all of Darkshine's respectful words, she really needed to work on following orders. They couldn't afford to lose the whole mission for one femme. Besides, Shadowlight could take care of herself, she just needed a little support. _

_Thankfully they had managed to knock out the Autobot's defences and communications, as well as rescuing Makeshift. He was now behind the boulder next to her with Shadowlight and Darkshine flying overhead. Their position was already given away, so the sisters were picking off as many troops as they could from above. The Autobots didn't stand a chance, as was clear a few klicks into the battle._

_/Terabyte – got a 'Bot to your ri- nevermind, Makeshift got him – what do you think about throwing a little femme party at our place when we get back? Maybe pull an all-nighter, get to know each other better?/ Shadowlight asked, still blasting at the remaining Autobots._

_/Sounds fun. You have sweet En'?/ She asked as she shot an Autobot flier out of the skies with her cannon. _

_/Yup. What's a party without sweet Energon?/_

_/Then it's set. Party at your place starting after workshift!/ She shot the last mech who wasn't retreating - she tried to avoid killing retreating mechs, the idea of doing so was sickening to her - before giving the order to return to base. Transforming, she shot off over the flat terrain, greatly looking forward to the arranged party. It really was surprising how well the three femmes had taken to each other in only three rotations._

* * *

Arcee had been holding a stack of datapads with a cube of energon balanced precariously on top. The Autobot femme had just come back from the main room and was taking her fuel and some reports she needed to file to her quarters where she could work more comfortably. Focused intently on not dropping her load, Arcee didn't see the two mechs coming around the corner until it was too late.

For their part, Cliffjumper had just reached the climax of the story of how he and Arcee came to Earth when they rounded the corner. Terabyte had been listening to the story, enjoying his wild retelling of the venture, and didn't see Arcee until just a few astro-seconds after the fact.

Both groups were unaware of the other as they walked down the hallway, reaching the corner at just exactly the same moment. All Terabyte knew was that she was walking and then suddenly Arcee had walked right into her, dumping something wet all over her.

Cliffjumper leapt out of the way and very helpfully just stood there staring at the two-wheelers, waiting to see how they would react.

Arcee and Terabyte stared at each other unseeing for a while before what happened began to process. Arcee's datapads were scattered on the floor, the cracked screen of one flickering forlornly. Her energon cube was shattered; its contents covering Terabyte's chassis and now rolling down one leg in rivulets.

Terabyte's lips curled in disgust, and although her mask hid it; her revulsion was clear. A similar expression touched Arcee's face-plates, though her disgust was directed at Terabyte, not the accident.

"Watch where you're going!" The femmes snarled simultaneously, which only made them madder. They both glared at the other, mutual dislike rolling of them almost tangibly. Cliffjumper chose that moment to make an attempt at breaking them apart before a fight started, which from the tension in the air between them seemed very likely.

Resting a restraining hand on Arcee's shoulder, he took a clean cloth from subspace and passed it to Terabyte; who was completely oblivious to the offer.

"Why don't we all just apologize and get this cleaned up. Then we can just move on and forget this-"

"You want _me_ to apologize to _her_? Like that's gonna happen! She," Terabyte interrupted angrily and at this point raised a finger to point accusingly at Arcee, "just dumped a whole cube of energon on me, and you want _me_ to apologize?"

"I wouldn't have dropped it at all if you had been watching where you were going!" Arcee yelled back, shrugging off Cliffjumper's hand and balling her hands into fists.

"This is stupid. It's not worth fighti-" Once again, both femmes ignored the red mech's attempts to calm them, though his words did echo annoyingly through Terabyte's processor. He was right, they were being childish, but... It was _Arcee's_ fault!

"Oh so this is my fault then is it?" Terabyte gestured at the energon dripping down her front and the broken datapads on the floor.

"Yes!" The blue and pink warrior looked down at her triumphantly.

Terabyte glared at the Autobot, fuming inside but not wanting to compromise her position. The Prussian blue femme forced herself into a submissive pose, the action being almost painful. Her jaw tight, Terabyte bowed her helm slightly before bending down and with strained care picked up the fallen datapads; handing them stiffly to the smug femme in front of her, not bothering to wipe the bright blue energon from off her chassis first.

"Thank you Cliffjumper. It was a pleasant tour, and informative." Her voice was mechanical and empty aside from a light stress on 'was'. Her face-plates just below her optic twitched in frustration and reluctance. Inclining her helm respectfully to Arcee again, Terabyte continued in half-hearted obligation, "Arcee. Shall I bring you another energon?"

"That's nice of you Terabyte, but that's okay. I'll get it for her." Cliffjumper replied quickly. He glanced between the two femmes anxiously.

"In that case, I apologize for any inconvenience that may have been caused, and I will now excuse myself; with your permission of course." Terabyte specifically didn't say who caused the inconvenience, taking victory at least in that.

"Of course. We'll see you... later?" Cliffjumper again answered before Arcee had a chance, then pulled Arcee back the way they had just come.

When both Autobots were out of hearing range, Terabyte growled. Letting loose the fury she'd been restraining, the spy slammed her fist into the wall as hard as she could, leaving a human dodgeball-sized dent in the dull gray metal before stomping off to the wash racks.

* * *

The rest of the orn went relatively smoothly, Arcee's 'victory' making the other femme less antagonistic towards Terabyte for the most part. It was as if Arcee just needed to prove to herself and to Cliffjumper that she was superior to the ex-Decepticon. Although Terabyte's pride was still sore from that encounter, she had to admit that it had ultimately stabilized her standing with the femme and thus the Autobots as a whole.

Like she had thought, new quarters were not found for her; she was still in the brig. She had at least been given a remote control to turn off the shield. But today, that didn't matter very much to her. Today was her first patrol. Terabyte was more nervous than she would ever admit, she hadn't slept much at all... until 0700. She decided she would read a little bit and then go out to prepare for her patrol at 0830; the Autobots wouldn't miss her.

Tension had lightened, but Cliffjumper and the Prime were the only ones that even acknowledged her most of the time. And Ratchet. Ratchet had been unusually kind to her ever since the processor scan.

Terabyte must have dozed off while reading though, because at 0910 her proximity alert woke her up. Jolting up, she looked around and saw... No one. Slowly she shut down the field and peeked outside.

"So, are you gonna go or not?" Terabyte looked down and saw Miko staring up at her impatiently. "Optimus and 'Bee are going to check out a weird signal, and you're s'posed to go with them."

Just then the readings on her chronometer seemed to click into her processor. She was late. Deviation from the rules would ruin everything... Oh no. Terabyte transformed into her Cybertronian alt-mode – she had not taken an Earth form, it was a disgrace to the memory of Cybertron. Cybertronians shouldn't look like the humans' machines.

Through her side mirrors, she saw that Miko had climbed into her seat and was admiring her alt-mode. Making sure the fragile fleshy was safely positioned, she sped off towards the bridge room.

"Wooohoo!"Miko shouted as the wind tugged at her clothing, "You're faster than Arcee! And _way_ cooler looking. Three wheels! Awesome!"

Terabyte couldn't help but smile at the girl's excitement. She'd take a compliment any day, especially at Arcee's expense. Although...

"You better not let Arcee hear that... She hates me enough as is."

As she spoke, she took a corner perhaps more sharply than necessary, her third wheel splaying out to the side to hold her balance. A squeal from her passenger rewarded Terabyte's effort, and she grinned internally. Human or not, she'd always liked younglings; Cybertronian younglings were getting more and more rare any more though.

When they got to the bridge room, she paused just long enough for Miko to get off and to a safe distance, then she transformed as fast as she could. Dipping her head formally to Optimus, Terabyte's vents heaved as she hurried to cool down before speaking.

"I'm sorry! I was ready to go and I just-"

"It's alright, Terabyte. We have detected Decepticon activity in the desert. For your first mission you will accompany Bumblebee and myself to investigate. Ratchet." Optimus interrupted her rushed apology and motioned for the medic to reactivate her weapons and long-range communications in case they were separated.

"Good luck. You'll need it." Ratchet whispered into her audials as he worked.

After Ratchet had unlocked the needed systems, Cliffjumper gave her back her black mini-cannon. Flashing her an encouraging smile, he activated the ground-bridge. Feeling her spark pulse speed up, Terabyte followed Optimus through the portal with Bumblebee to her right.

As soon as she was through, her HUD powered up with a flurry of sensor readings. Her sensors had picked up three Decepticon spark signals, as well as a residual energon reading. One of the signals was weak, like the mech had just come out of stasis. Looking around, she caught a glimpse of Soundwave on the clifftop.

"This does not look good..." Bumblebee said quietly in Cybertronian.

"No Bumblebee, it does not. Remain here, I'm going to investigate." The Prime ordered before walking into the canyon, towards two of the life-signs. Bumblebee followed at a distance, carefully keeping himself hidden and watching the Prime closely.

_/Sir, I've sighted Soundwave; with your leave I will find out what he's up to... and stop him if I can./ _Terabyte informed the Prime as she rolled off to the cliff where she'd seen Soundwave. Optimus just sent a small ping of acknowledgement. This was a perfect opportunity to check up on the details of her mission. Hopefully Starscream hadn't altered it too much, getting out now would be... difficult to say the least.

When she reached the cliff base, Terabyte transformed and started the climb up. Thankfully there were plenty of footholds for her, making it an easy hike. By the time she reached the top, she could hear a roar coming from below, followed by the sounds of crashing metal. A battle had just begun.

Not taking time to see who was fighting whom, Terabyte made her way to Soundwave, who was recording the battle with Starscream now at his side.

"Are you getting this Soundwave? We will need official documentation of Optimus Prime's demise... for the record." Starscream said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

"Commander Starscream." She dipped her helm – respectfully interrupting – and maybe less respectfully, ignoring the Seeker's protest of "That's _Lord _Starscream to you!" and turned to her commander. "Sir, I have successfully infiltrated the Autobots. They do not yet trust me, as you expected, but I have been paroled. The Autobots' Prime informed me of Lord Megatron's demise. I came to confirm this lie and to ask if there have been any changes to my mission of which I should be aware."

Soundwave nodded once, then stepped away from the cliff edge and he looked up at the sky. Terabyte dipped her helm in acknowledgement. Her commander was satisfied with her progress.

"Where have they gone?" Starscream asked angrily, "Soundwave! Why aren't you tracking them?!"

A transmission beep emitted from Soundwave with a slightly exasperated ring. Terabyte couldn't blame him, _no_ one liked having to put up with the Seeker.

"What, what is it?" Starscream asked impatiently, turning to face the stoic mech waving his thin hands dismissively. A weak Decepticon life-signal showed on Soundwave's visor, the exact location not yet pinpointed. "A second Decepticon life-signal?" The Air Commander's voice lowered thoughtfully. "But Skyquake is the only sleeper buried in this area!"

Terabyte's finials pricked forward in interest. Skyquake? He was here? Now? Her spark pulse sped up almost double and her frame practically tingled with excitement. The small femme's EM field flared happily, Skyquake had been woken at last. She could hardly wait to see him again; it had been almost a decavorn since he'd been given the sleeper assignment.

Soundwave turned to Starscream and showed that the Decepticon signal was coming from the location of where the space bridge used to be. Where the Lord Protector had supposedly died.

"The site of our destroyed space bridge..." Starscream took a step toward Soundwave, glaring at him. "You're not telling me that life-signal belongs to _Megatron_?" The mech spluttered, "B-b-b-but he was _microns_ from the detonation point! _No_thing could have survived that blast! Your sensors must be faulty!"

Starscream stormed away in a huff, staring out over the cliff's edge as if searching the clouds for advice. Suddenly he flung his arms out rudely. "Ignore the contact! Delete the coordinates!" He snapped almost desperately.

The spy was hardly paying attention until this point, but Starscream's orders to ignore the fact that Megatron could be alive snapped her back to the conversation. Driven by her duty to her people, Terabyte took one bold step towards the rash Seeker.

"Sir, with _all_ due respect," Her tone was nearly completely void of respect, "That is treason. Lord Megatron must live. He is the only hope our cause has left."

Starscream walked up to her, his wings making him seem much larger than the thin mech really was. He raised one clawed hand menacingly over her, but Terabyte fearfully held her ground, hoping that either Soundwave would intervene or that the Seeker would see reason.

Raising her energon blade defensively Terabyte looked the Commander in the optics. She couldn't back down, it would only be seen as weakness. Although... She was standing before the most cowardly mech in the Decepticon forces; he may not have the bearings to attack a femme. As she looked up at the silver claws brandished only a few inches from her face, she could only hope. It would be a shame to incapacitate her commanding officer. Terabyte figured Soundwave would not appreciate that.

After a klick, Starscream stepped back shaking his helm roughly."Gah! What am I saying?" The Seeker was beginning to sound high-pitched and hysterical. "O-of course, this must be - ah -_investigated_. If Lord Megatron is up there, I shall bring him home." Starscream puffed out his chest importantly. "Remain here and monitor the outcome. When Skyquake snuffs Prime's spark,_ I_ must bear witness."

"I must bear witness." Soundwave replayed after the Seeker had flown off. The silent purple mech turned to Terabyte and shook his helm slowly. His chest-plate opened to reveal Laserbeak, who flew out in Starscream's direction. Someone needed to keep an optic on the power-hungry Air Commander.

"Commander Soundwave? What of my mission?" Not sure which method of communication he would use, Terabyte regarded the department head expectantly watching and listening for his answer.

Choosing visual display, a bright red equals sign lit up his visor and flashed a few times before disappearing. Her mission was unchanged. With that, the mech transformed and flew off to a discreet position near the battle to follow his own orders.

Now alone on the cliff, the Decepticon femme stared unseeing into the clouds, her spark and processor buzzing with excitement. Skyquake was back! Oh, she had so many things to tell him! Terabyte's took in a huge vent of air, grinning widely under her mask.

She'd missed him _so _much... But now he was back!

* * *

**A.N. Now things start getting exciting! Reviews are greatly enjoyed, encouraged, and loved. Dear readers, we have one action packed chapter coming up! And if you've watched the show; you've got a pretty good idea why. But what will **_**I**_** do? Not even I know yet...*Dramatic suspenseful music plays loudly***


	9. Chapter 9

**Duty and Deceit**

**Chapter 9**

**Of Broken Spark**

_She walked slowly to the address that Shadowlight had given her. The little femme had never been one for parties, but she also wanted to have some femme friends. After all, she'd been in Kaon for a while and was going to be there for the foreseeable future. Taking a deep in-vent to steel herself, she rang the doorbell politely._

_Darkshine opened the door for her and the spy gasped at the sight that greeted her. The room was bright and shining. The two jets' quarters were huge and full of expensive furniture and extravagant decorations. The pale blue Cybertanium walls were lined with shiny white light panels and fabulous paintings. One whole side of the living area was glass, providing a rare view of the Kaonian city gleaming in the dark of the night._

"_Not bad huh?" Darkshine commented airily._

_The two-wheeler nodded slowly still taking in the grand surroundings. "How can you afford this? I have a hard enough time paying for my tiny one-room apartment! And I outrank you!" For the moment, she didn't even notice the other two femmes that the sisters had invited._

"_For starters, there's two of us sharing the bill. Also; warrior class get higher pay. Higher risk and whatnot." The black jet shrugged. "We brought a couple of our other femme friends along. This is Thunderblast and Nightracer."_

_The two femmes in question were reclining comfortably on the fluffy brown sofa. Thunderblast, a petite – considering her alt-mode - boatformer, looked up from polishing her servos to smile at her while Nightracer, a cute carformer much closer to her own age, glanced up and waved shyly. She waved back, grinning. _

_Just then Shadowlight walked in from the kitchen area and grinned widely at them, a cube of sweet En' for each of them balanced precariously in her hands. "So we've had our introductions... Let's get this party started!" _

* * *

_All of the femmes' processors were fuzzy by 2400. Far too much sweet En' had done that. The sweetened energy most commonly drunk by younglings was by no means addicting, but it sure tasted good... Not to mention spiking one's energy levels. At the moment, the five femmes were laying sprawled out on the floor playing Truth or Dare; their armor sparkling and shining from being freshly polished... several times. _

"_My turn!" She said happily, though her voice was a little harsh from laughing so hard just a little bit earlier at Darkshine, who had just finished doing an imitation of a decapitated robo-chicken for a dare. "Nightracer, truth or dare?"_

"_Truth." The blue sniper answered instantly. Obviously the little car didn't want to risk a dare like 'Shine's.  
_

"_What is the most embarrassing thing you've ever done?" Her optics glinted with challenge and anticipation. This one was bound to be good..._

"_Oh! Oh..." Nightracer gave her an uneasy look, squirming slightly. "Can I do a dare instead?"_

"_Nope!" The spy grinned evilly, her mask having been lowered since her last turn. Her slight resentment toward Thunderblast for that dare had faded mostly after her peace offering of copper candy. "Don't wimp out on me femme."_

"_Aww... Um... Well there was the time I first got my guns..." She looked away awkwardly. The other four femmes nodded for her to go on, all of them wearing wide grins. Nightracer was the last one to be asked a variation of that question. "'Kay, so I was only in my third youngling frame and I had just been upgraded; so like, I wasn't totally adjusted yet and my coordination was off... A lot... and well, I tried to fire them both at the same time. It sort of didn't go too well."_

"_Ah c'mon! What'd you do?" Was the unanimous response._

_The sniper's engine whined but she went on bravely. "I- I blew my own feet off – and I mean totally __**off – **__after shooting my mentor in the face. I couldn't walk for two-and-a-half orns!"_

_"From blowing your feet off or from shooting your mentor in the face?" Darkshine asked morbidly._

"_You blew your feet off." The two-wheeler repeated dryly. "You __**blew**__ your feet __**off? **__How in the world did you manage that?!"_

_Peals of hysterical laughter echoed through half the deck. The friendships made that evening were well worth the next rotation's reprimands for tardiness. _

* * *

He flew towards her, rolling masterfully through the clouds. The fluffy clouds split in his wake and trailed beautifully off his rust-red wingtips, the sunlight reflecting off his cockpit. Terabyte watched Skyquake's flight enraptured. At that moment, the jet was the most wonderful thing she'd ever seen.

Time seemed to slow down as Terabyte watched Skyquake descend towards her. As she watched him, it struck her that the mech was trying to talk to her. Shaking her helm gently, she looked up at him, a myriad of memories flooding her mind.

"Tera'?" Skyquake's low, gravelly voice washed over her audios like sweetest music. The femme was so pleased to see him again that she forgot to lower her battle mask. Likewise her energon blade remained fully charged and ready.

"Skyquake!" All other words lost, Terabyte ran to her long departed friend. Optic fluid rolled down her face and pooled on the edge of her mask, so great was her joy. The little two-wheeler jumped up to give the towering mech a welcoming hug.

She never saw it coming, or if she had, her processor had been unable to comprehend it at the time.

Half-way to him, Skyquake raised his arm and back-handed Terabyte out of the air. The moment his hand connected with her abdomen, Terabyte's ecstasy was crushed just as quickly as the steel gray proto-plating. He wasn't supposed to have reacted like that. It didn't even occur to the spy that her dagger and war mask might have given the wrong impression.

Slumped up against a boulder several car-lengths away, Terabyte sat stunned. Optics shuttered and opened, once, twice, three times. Her processors stuttered, the effort of simply trying to figure out why he'd done that pressing her mind to the brink of glitching. Emotionally and physically injured by Skyquake's assault, Terabyte gazed up at the angry mech, now approaching her with his machine gun levelled on her spark, with devastated optics.

For vorns she'd imagined how their reunion would be, but never – not even in her worst nightmares – did Terabyte consider such a response from her comrade. Shock, hurt and distress threatened to overwhelm her.

"You would attack me? I would have thought you were wiser than this Terabyte." Skyquake spat her name as if it were the worst of insults. "How long have you been a traitor, femme? How could you turn on our cause after so long? After everything you've done for the Decepticons, you would turn on me _now_?"

Terabyte's engine whined long as she backed up further against the boulder. Tears filled her optics and she let out a pained gasp. She knew him too well; she could never do anything to hurt him – even if she wanted to – and she would not survive should Skyquake attack.

"Sky! Please, hear me out!" The Prussian blue femme's voice broke as she stifled a sob. Terabyte wasn't sure if it was from the pain caused by her badly dented armor or from the pain in her spark. Skyquake was her best friend, this _shouldn't_ have been happening. "I'm not reall-"

"Lies from the mouth of a traitor. Terabyte..." Skyquake's jaws clenched and his voice was low. He'd made a decision and his mind would not be changed; that's what that tone was. "Tera', I don't want to harm you, but I will if I must. Today I will leave you. Should we meet again, I cannot be so lenient. Please," His voice went soft, breaking slightly, "Do not – I hope we shall never have to meet again."

With that final warning, Skyquake transformed and flew back to the battle he had started with the Prime. For a whole breem, Terabyte didn't move. She merely stared at where the jet had been standing, her mind numb and her spark feeling as if it had just been torn apart. No. This shouldn't have happened... It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Suddenly fueled by a desperate determination, Terabyte shook herself from her devastated thoughts and stood slowly, ignoring the sharp sting in her frame as the damaged plating pressed against her protoform. Her mind made up, the sturdy little femme took steady, certain strides towards the battlefield.

'_Who cares if he kills me afterwards? I must help him. He needs help or the Prime will offline him for sure. Skyquake is a great fighter, but Technahar proved that the Prime will still win. If I help, Sky may still have a chance...'_

* * *

She arrived over the raging battle just in time to see Bumblebee reach the top of the cliff. Skyquake was nearing the perfect place for the yellow scout to ambush him. Her mission and her own safety discarded as unimportant, Terabyte put on a burst of speed and jumped on Bumblebee with her energon dagger still drawn.

"Don't. You. Dare!" She ground out from where she had grabbed hold of his doorwing. Knowing how sensitive a Praxian's doorwings were, Terabyte put her full weight on it. "Leave Skyquake alone! Don't you have any honor? Two to one is hardly even odds, Autobot! Or are you scared your precious Prime can't fight his own battles?" She taunted as she wrenched on the scout's wing.

Bumblebee growled at the insult, but made no response. He tried to shake her off but her grip was too strong. Terabyte raised her dagger to impale his other doorwing. Unfortunately she had underestimated the scout and before she could inflict further damage to him, he had punched her in the face; leaving her on the ground.

"_Sorry." _Bumblebee added an apologetic whirr to his toneless Cybertronian.

"No! Don't hurt-!" Terabyte screamed in desperation.

The scout ignored her and leapt off the edge, landing on Skyquake's back. The two-wheeler transformed painfully and followed their flight as best she could, anxiously watching the two warriors and waiting to see what Bumblebee would do.

Terabyte stared in horror as the yellow Autobot plunged his fist into the side of Skyquake's jet-mode. Bumblebee tore his hand from the green frame, bringing with it a sparking handful of his internals. The hole that was left was smoking and Skyquake began losing altitude.

"NO! No... Skyquake!" The Prussian blue femme cried, her inability to help tearing at her very being. When Bumblebee thrust his other fist into Skyquake, yet again tearing out a fistful of circuitry - this time sending a web of cracks down his cockpit as well - Terabyte staggered backwards where she stood as if the injury was to herself rather than the jet. Now bearing two smoking holes in his frame, Skyquake plummeted to the earth. Shortly before the soldier crash landed, Bumblebee leapt off of him and onto Fowler's jet, from which Skyquake had gotten his new Earth alt-mode.

The army green mech transformed moments before he hit the ground. Skyquake slid across the canyon floor, leaving a slightly charred trench damp with his own life-En in his wake.

She transformed into bi-pedal mode and ran recklessly down the cliff-side; jumping from one ledge to the next. Terabyte ignored the spikes of pain that ran through her at every landing. All that mattered to her now was reaching Skyquake.

* * *

Skyquake lay motionless on the ground. He felt like he'd just fallen off the tallest spire in Kaon. Which he might have actually done before… But his processor was so blurry; he could hardly remember anything. He wasn't sure why he was on the ground or who had put him there. He just knew that that's where he was.

Slowly he opened his optics. The sunset above him was so pretty… So pretty… Rolling his helm to the side to see more of his surroundings, Skyquake saw a femme about half his height – if she was half his height how tall was he? If he didn't know how tall he was, how did he know she was half that? The confused thoughts made his helm ache – She was prettier than the sunset, Skyquake decided finally.

The femme was Prussian blue and black with steel gray proto-plating on her thighs, abdomen, arms and neck. A small gap in her armor ran down her sides and from that gap came the faint yellow glow of her bio-lights. She had a mini cannon with gold and blue ornamental attachments on it latched to her forearm. The femme's joints were gold and sparkled in the light of the setting sun, as did the black windscreen of her alt-mode which wrapped around her neck like a scarf.

What was a scarf? Skyquake frowned minutely. His processor kept supplying him with analogies, comparisons and words that he couldn't remember. And… why did he hurt so much? He barely noticed the thin plume of smoke rising from his chassis. His helm was wet and pounding painfully with every spark pulse.

By this time, the femme was bent over him, her face just a foot or two from his. The beautiful two-wheeler – two-wheeler? She had three wheels! Skyquake's fuzzy logic centers argued. Again he chose not to dwell on it too much – was crying. Why was she crying? Did he know her? Was he dying? He didn't want to die.

The femme lowered her battle mask and smiled at him weakly. Her silvery face was angular and elfish – though he wasn't sure what an elf was. This was starting to get annoying. He ought to know these things – marked only with a thin jagged scar that cut across her cheek. It started just below her yellow optics and ended by her lips. She had dainty, seemingly perfect lip-plates… Skyquake belatedly realized they were moving and turned on his audials. The action took more energy than he'd thought it would and his optics powered down.

The last thing he saw was a warning symbol on his HUD. It said, 'Warning: Energon levels critical. Inducing stasis lock in 10, 9…'

"Skyquake! It's going to be all right. I'll save you, I promise!" A tiny smile touched Skyquake's face. Her voice was so harmonious, even as worried and grieved as it was. He just wished he knew why she was so sad… He wanted to make her ha–

His audials crackled with static before shutting down. All at once Skyquake felt his systems crash.

'_I don't want to die…' _Skyquake thought in one last astro-second of panicked consciousness. _'She will save me. She promised! Please help me, I don't want to die.' _

"NO!" Terabyte's wail echoed through the canyon as Skyquake's optic closed and his frame relaxed under her. She held his face gently in her hands, "Sky! No!"

* * *

**A.N. Oh boy… Am I evil or what? I did say this chapter would be massive. Whatever will I do next? Anything can happen at this point.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Transformers. Only my OC's. Speaking of which, Thunderblast and Nightracer are canon, they are just much younger in my timeline. Check them out on the tfwiki for an idea of what they look like. Also, to see Terabyte's alt-mode : . /-Ope361tJz1Y/T3xHx4yZQsI/AAAAAAAAO1o/7g85bxMJPI8/s640/FB+R200S%252C+Concept+ : go to that site. It's pretty awesome, and we all know a picture is worth a thousand words. :)  
**

**Sorry this one's a little late... I posted chapter 8 early and accidentally threw off my whole writing schedule. Also be warned... Chapter 10 may also be late. It keeps arguing with me... This story really has a life of its own.**

**Review and comment, dear readers!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Duty and Deceit**

**Chapter 10**

**Loss and Hope**

* * *

**A.N. Ok. Speech in bold from now on is Cybertronian. Just to clear things up a bit. Except in flashbacks: Those are always Cybertronian – you know, because they're on Cybertron – so I really didn't think it was necessary there. In the past, unless she was talking to a human directly, Terabyte was speaking Cybertronian. 'Bee speaks Cybertronian, but at sparkling level and sort of tonelessly because of the damage to his vocals. (which is why he beeps and whirrs a lot) Everyone else speaks English as a courtesy to the humans. That will be addressed a little later on.**

* * *

_Skyquake was away on a mission. He would be away for at least an orn, so she didn't have her usual training sessions. She didn't want to spend the whole time he was gone by herself, so when Thunderblast asked her to a sparring match that evening, she had no objections._

_The little femme still couldn't believe she'd lowered her mask at the party a quartex ago and it had made her even stricter about keeping it up. The things one does when they've had too much sweet foods. Since it was also Thunderblast's fault that she'd done it in the first place, the spy looked forward to a chance to humiliate the boat._

_As soon as both femmes were in the training area, they bowed and began the match. After a few breems of neither one getting in a substantial hit, it became clear that their skills were nearly equal. She also noticed that Thunderblast had no qualms with fighting dirty; which turned out to be a slight advantage for the boat. Her own smaller size however, gave the two-wheeler an equal advantage._

"_So, what have you been up to lately Terabyte?" Thunderblast asked, blocking one of her strikes and throwing in a punch which was easily dodged._

"_Oh fine. I have quite a bit more free time than normal just now; I'm not entirely sure what to do with it. That's part of why I came here." She continued fighting gracefully, not allowing her opponent's banter to distract her. "How about you?Anything interesting going on?"_

"_You know, this and that. I've been keeping an optic on Knockout. He's-" _

_Rolling her golden optics, the Prussian blue femme tuned out the next breem of Thunderblast's talking. The purple and gold femme was obsessed with mechs. She never paid much attention to the boat, nor did she particularly like her other than as a sparring opponent. As for herself, she couldn't care less about mechs. _

"_Honestly Thunder. He may have a shiny paint job, but he's a vain and arrogant fool! Surely even you can see that." Taking advantage of Thunderblast's momentary lapse in concentration, the spy got in a blow that knocked the boat to the floor. She jumped on top of her downed opponent and wrapped her hand around a vital fuel line, pressing lightly. "Besides, you should pay more attention to the fight or you'll be seeing the medic shortly."_

_When the purple femme appeared to actually be considering the option, the two-wheeler pulled Thunderblast up; she shook her helm disgustedly, strongly feeling the urge to purge her tanks._

"_Alright, I'll stay more focused." Thunderblast grinned as she initiated the next round. "How's it going with you and Skyquake then?"_

"_Thunder, sometimes I wonder if you've even got a processor in that thick helm of yours. He's a good friend and he's taught me to fight. That's all." She feinted and over-balanced the boat-femme, smashing her fist into Thunderblast's helm. "And that's two to one in my favor."_

"_He's taught you a little too well, if you ask me." Thunderblast grumbled as she got back up, rubbing the new dent in her helm. _

"_Why don't we call it a night? I mean, it'd be a shame if you weren't able to get fixed up before your next shift." The spy grinned, her optics twinkling. She gestured to the various dents and scuffs on the femme's purple and gold armor. "After all, what would people think if they saw you in that state? Beaten by a femme half your size too. An awful shame."_

_As she'd expected, Thunderblast took the bait and charged again. Unfortunately for her, she was going too fast to stop by the time she noticed the Prussian blue pede raise up in her path. Thunderblast tripped over her pede and fell with a loud crash to the floor._

"_Like I said, I'm going to call it a night. See you in the morning, Thunder!" She exited the training area in triumph, making a mental note to thank Skyquake when he got back._

* * *

**Previously on Duty and Deceit…**

"**NO!" Terabyte's wail echoed through the canyon as Skyquake's optic closed and his frame relaxed under her. She held his face gently in her hands, "Sky! No!"**

**All at once Skyquake felt his systems crash. **_**'I don't want to die…' **_**Skyquake thought in one last astro-second of panicked consciousness. **_**'She will save me. She promised! Please help me, I don't want to die.'**_

* * *

"**No… no, no, no, no! You can't die!"** Terabyte whispered. Pulling out her emergency med-kit, the femme quickly assessed the damage. It was too were two gaping holes, the larger in his torso and the smaller in his helm. She couldn't fix _this_! **"I can't fix this… Shadowlight! Help me, please! I have to fix him. I promised."** Vainly she called for her offlined former friend.

She needed a medic.

Even though she knew she couldn't fix Skyquake, Terabyte's hands flew over his chassis repairing the few things she knew how to; hoping that she could stop the leaking enough to keep him alive. All the while, optic fluid rolled down her face.

Terabyte jerked away instinctually from someone's hand. Looking to her shoulder, she vaguely recognized the hand as belonging to the Prime himself.

"**Get away! Haven't you done enough?"** Terabyte screamed, staring at the life En on her hands. **"He's going to die and it's your fault! Are you happy now? All for the Autobot cause, right? I don't know how **_**anyone**_** could think joining your energon-thirsty army could be better for them! I should never have gone to your side!"**

"Terabyte…" His voice was filled with pain and sorrow. Good. The Autobots deserved all the pain their warped sense of honor could throw at them. "Step away from Skyquake. We will take him back to base. Ratchet may be able to save him. But you have to trust me and let me take him back."

She snorted rudely. **"The only place you want to take him is the Well. And then you'd probably call it 'mercy'."**

"You have my word as a Prime, Terabyte. I will not allow any more harm to come to him."

The distraught spy turned her gaze down to the growing pool of life-En around her black diamond-shaped knee-plates. Biting her lip, Terabyte made up her mind. Skyquake was dying. Desperate times called for desperate measures, or so it was said.

Terabyte stood up slowly and looked up at the Prime. She only just reached mid-riff on the huge mech. The same height as Skyquake, Megatron… It was a good height, she thought blearily. Her processor felt numb, as if she had reached some sort of stress cap and the result was that her logic centers had turned off.

"**If you are lying, know this: I will not rest until he is avenged."** With that dire threat, the femme stepped aside.

Optimus nodded solemnly and quickly knelt to pick up Skyquake, taking care not to jostle the unconscious mech. The ground bridge opened and the three of them rushed through it to the Autobot base.

* * *

"What on Cybertron happened out there?!" Ratchet shouted as Optimus laid the gravely wounded Decepticon on the surgical berth. Not waiting for an answer, the medic continued his rant. "Optimus, with all due respect, you're severely glitched if you think I'm going to _fix_ this mech! I will _not_ repair this Decepticon murderer."

"Ratchet…" The Prime rumbled dangerously, laying one flat hand on the medic's shoulder. "We are Autobots, we serve and protect all life; regardless of-"

"No!" Ratchet pulled away harshly and ripped a wrench from subspace, flailing it around as he spoke. Terabyte's engine growled. Skyquake must be saved at all costs; he didn't have time for the medic's tantrum. "I don't care! I will not willingly save the life of the mech who killed our friend!"

"**Which one?"**Terabyte snarled, **"This is war: Mechs kill, mechs die. Would you rather add **_**another**_** spark to the list?"** She released her dagger and, dodging the swinging wrench, shoved it up against the medic's neck.

"**So help me, if you don't fix him… I will not hesitate to offline you." **The femme hissed, adding more pressure to the blade. She hadn't drawn life-En… yet.

"Terabyte, this is not our way either. Stand down, now. Ratchet. Commander Prowl was a close friend to me as well; his death is not unfelt. It weighs heavy on my spark, even after so long." The Autobot leader leveled a reproving look on the medic and the spy in turn.

Both mechs wilted noticeably. Terabyte stepped back, still simmering, but she retracted her blade as well – jaw-hinges creaking under the strain from clenching them so tightly.

"That does not condone deliberately allowing this mech to die; no matter what atrocities he has committed in the past, he deserves a second chance. We gave Prowl a second chance. Would you deny another that same chance?" The Prime glared at Ratchet; it was not up for discussion. "You will repair him as if he were one of our own. Understood?"

"Even _he_ would not hesitate to offline every one of us?" The medic asked bitterly, but it was obvious that he had been subdued.

Terabyte hovered nearby, watching as the medic immediately began working on Skyquake. The red and white medic repaired the soldier without any further questioning. That didn't mean that Ratchet was happy with it – his shouting and throwing various medical tools across the room, adding several more dents to the walls, floors, and Terabyte's armor, proved as much.

Or was he just always like that? It was difficult to tell.

"Terabyte!" Ratchet smacked her shoulder wheel with the wrench he'd just been using, his other hand still deep in Skyquake's chassis. "Focus! Either pay attention and be useful or get out. Give me a laser scalpel."

"**Yes sir."** The femme hurried to obey, knowing fully that Skyquake's life depended on her cooperation.

The damage was so severe... She didn't understand even half of the things Ratchet was doing. She could tell however, that the scout had torn open one of Skyquake's fuel tanks and ripped out part of his processor. Very few mechs could survive that much damage to the helm. Those who did were never the same again...

Her anger at the medic's reluctance had faded relatively quickly, being replaced instantly with worry for her friend.

Now holding a clump of wires Ratchet had given her, Terabyte looked at up at him fearfully, her mask back up. **"He's not going to make it is he?" **She already was certain of the answer.

The idea of Skyquake dying made her feel strangely dead inside. Hollow. As if her spark had gone to the Well and somehow left her behind, no more than an empty husk with no more hope of joy than a machine.

"Shut up and turn up the Energon output on that drip. I don't give up on a patient; you got that? Never. Unlike the medics you know." Ratchet growled as he finished sealing the sliced fuel lines and began cleaning up the dried life-En so that he could patch the ruptured fuel tank properly.

**"If he lives, will he even still be the same mech? Or will he be a different mech with Skyquake's body?"**

Terabyte almost thought that would be worse than losing him. No, she'd rather he died than have to live seeing some shredded wisp of the mech she had known. If she couldn't keep Skyquake, she didn't want a fake running around as a constant reminder of her loss. It would be a violation of her friend's honor.

A voice in the back of her mind wondered if she had pushed the angry mech too far. After all, he had already made it clear that he'd rather see Skyquake offline anyway.

"I DON'T KNOW!" The medic roared at her. "Alright? I'm not Primus. I can't work miracles; I can only do my job and hope for the best. You should be glad I'm trying at all. Do you know how many of ours have died on my watch because of _this_ mech?"

"**I lost my entire **_**city**_** because of your kind. I should think I understand loss."** Terabyte returned resentfully.

Ratchet turned back to the repairs. The damage to Skyquake's fuel tank was easily fixed in comparison; the main problem had been the rapid loss of energon. Now the question was not whether or not he would live, but rather whether or not he would ever come out of stasis.

"Go get me an Alpha model processor drive. Replacement parts are in cargo bay five. And be quick about it."

"**Alpha drive. Bay five. Got it."** The femme answered tersely before running off to retrieve the part.

When Terabyte reached the cargo bay she groaned. The place was a disaster, various parts lay unlabeled and unorganized on the floor and shelves alike. Obviously, Ratchet wasn't in charge of this bay; the medic was meticulous about medical supplies being kept tidy. How was she supposed to find an Alpha drive in this wreck when she didn't even know what it looked like?

By some unimaginable stroke of luck, the femme noticed one shelf at the very back of the room that hadn't been trifled with. It would make sense to look there first; processor damage was rare and living long enough for spare parts to be needed was even rarer. Making her way through the chaos as quickly as she could, Terabyte scanned the shelf thoroughly twice before she located the correct one.

Terabyte shuddered as she picked up the very last Alpha drive in stock. If there hadn't been one… She hurriedly cut off that line of thought.

After she gave Ratchet the part, he ordered her out of the med-bay.

"**I'm not leaving."** She answered firmly.

"Yes you are. Get out. This is complicated work and I don't need any distractions." He answered just as firmly, not even looking up at her from where he was prepping the tools for the procedure.

**"I'm not leaving!" **Terabyte insisted. **"I won't be a distraction, I promise."**

"If you could turn invisible you would still be a distraction. Besides, this is going to take at least a joor and you have injuries of your own to attend. Cliffjumper!"

Terabyte glared at the red mech as he burst into the med-bay.

"Doc? You called?" Even then the mech was grinning cheekily at them.

"Don't call me Doc. Get Terabyte out of here." Ratchet still didn't look up from his work. He was busy slicing into Skyquake's helm so that there was enough room for him to begin the surgical procedure.

"Sure thing, Doc." Flashing the medic another of his annoying grins, Cliffjumper put a hand on her shoulder wheel and steered the femme to the exit.

Terabyte allowed herself to be led away, both because she knew there was nothing she could do to help and because her own injuries were beginning to really hurt. The extra rush of energy that had come with her fear was now gone, leaving her feeling drained.

* * *

"-ing your life was perhaps not the best of strategies, Bumblebee, but you performed admirably today."Optimus Prime was telling the scout in the main room. Terabyte shuddered; a swarm of thoughts flooding her stressed and weary processors.

**"It was nothing, really."** Bumblebee clicked modestly. Nothing. The swarming thoughts cleared, leaving only one thing behind. Rage. Terabyte fumed where she stood unnoticed by the victorious Autobots.

"Aww, 'Bee! You're too modest. You were probably awesome out there!" Raf said admirably from where the yellow and black mech had placed him on his shoulder. How did the fleshy understand Cybertronian anyway?

"Raf's totally right! What happened out there anyway? Was there more Decepticons? I bet you and Optimus pounded them to scrap!" The thought of scrapped Decepticons seemed to please the young, excitable human girl. Already the impressionable human sparklings were being influenced by the Autobots' lies.

Her lip-plates curled upwards in disgust. She couldn't take this any longer. Forcing herself to appear calm, the dark-colored femme took the few steps to where Miko was standing and knelt down to one knee so that she was closer to optic-level with the human. The fleshies were all so short, even compared to her.

"Do you really want to know what happened out there Miko?" Terabyte cast a glance at the Prime to see if he was going to stop her. She was after all still a prisoner of war. He didn't seem to be making any moves against her though, so she looked back at Miko.

"Well, duh. Would I have asked if I didn't?" She replied rolling her eyes. The serious tone that tinged the air didn't seem to have been noticed by the girl.

"Good point."Terabyte acceded, softening her tone and reminding herself that she was speaking to a child. "The Decepticons were waking one of their own. He had been in stasis for v- a really, really long time. While I was trying to find out what Soundwave was doing on the cliff-top, Bumblebee and the Prime engaged this newly woken Decepticon. I was not there for the entire battle, but I did see that both Autobots were attacking him. Bumblebee tore out a large portion of the Decepticon's proces- brain. He would have died."

Terabyte finished soberly. It had been harder to use only human terms than she'd thought it would be.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Miko asked.

"No. It isn't." She stood up to glare accusinglyat the other Autobots. **"When is it ever good to kill someone, anyone, in that way? An unequal fight."** Terabyte snorted. **"You might as well have been ganged up on him! Since when is that good, or admirable?"**

After looking deep into each of their blue optics, Terabyte laughed, humorless. **"I was sparked a neutral and raised as one. But if this is how both factions raise their young... Into sparkless killers. No wonder this war never ends."**

With that statement hanging in the air, the dark femme went and sat down next to the med-bay door. She figured the damage to her chassis ought to be fixed, but Terabyte couldn't bring herself to do it. Her thoughts were too scattered to do it properly anyway.

Hearing heavy footsteps approaching a few breems later, Terabyte looked up from where she had been staring at a blank point on the wall to her right. The green one, Bulky or something like that...Bulkhead. He was shuffling his pedes awkwardly.

Levelling the mech with a flat look, the two-wheeler spoke. Her tone was respectful, yet as flat as her gaze. She stood to attention, wincing as her armor creaked loudly in protest to the action.** "Yes?"**

"Uhh... Prime wants you to, uh," More awkward shuffling, before the mech seemed to get his bearings. "Optimus wants a full detailed report on the mission. It's due tomorrow."

Terabyte glanced at the empty datapad she'd just been given. A full report of all the legitimate sounding slag she could come up with to cover for her meeting with Soundwave. Should be easy enough. She'd also need to write up an official report for her commander.

Falling back on Decepticon military formalities, she bowed her helm deferentially. "Yes sir. I will have it prepared by the end of the rotation. To whom shall I deliver it sir?"

"Um, to Optimus." She nodded with another quiet **'yes sir'**. Terabyte was beginning to wonder if she shouldn't be so strictly formal though, it seemed to be bothering the Autobot. "Do- do you want some help with your repairs?"

Unable to stop herself, the femme tossed a pointed look towards the mech's huge, clumsy looking servos. She gave a nervous little chuckle. **"Heh... Thank you sir, but I believe I'll be able to manage on my own."**

He followed the femme's golden gaze slowly and then sighed. "Yeah. That's okay, just, uh, thought I'd make the offer. Um... I'll just, uh, go now."

**"The offer is much appreciated, sir. Good cycle."** Terabyte said quietly. A small smile crept to her face-plates as moments later Ratchet's voice echoed through the base.

"Bulkhead! _I needed that!"_

* * *

**A.N. And there we are! Sorry this is late. I have been chaotically busy and I'm not sure if it will let up any time soon. My posts will probably continue to be late for the foreseeable future, so please bear with me.**

**Please tell me what you think about Bulkhead from that little scene? I want to be sure l have him properly portrayed. Character portrayal is very important to me.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Duty and Deceit**

**Chapter 11**

**Undesirable Arrangements**

_"We're surrounded!" She shouted, leaping to another boulder and feeling the sting of shrapnel on her dorsal plating as her previous cover was blasted to pieces. /Commander Bludgeon, sir! The mission is compromised! I repeat, the mission is compromised. Requesting immediate reinforcements!/_

_Officially her mentor, Makeshift, was in charge of the reconnaissance mission. Unofficially, this mission was testing her own leadership skills on field._

_The small femme leaned her dark frame against the rock, standing up when the barrage of weapons-fire lulled. She fired off a round of her own cannon blasts, downing a mech that was stupid enough to step into her sights. Hearing a communications ping, the spy ducked back down._

_/How many of your team is left?/ Commander Bludgeon's cold voice played in her mind as she hurriedly read his message on her HUD. _

_/There's only five of us left, sir. Makeshift, myself, Barricade, and the symbiotes, Rumble and Ravage. The others are offline. We are under heavy fire sir, we need backup!/ _

_She stood up to blast a few more of the Autobot ambush, but her aim was thrown off by a hit to her shoulder. The wound had punctured her tire; her alt-mode would be practically useless. Grinding her jaw against the pain, the Prussian blue femme took cover again, watching as enemy fire ricocheted off the sides of her boulder._

_"Specialist! Where is that backup?" Makeshift roared over the sounds of battle. The little femme cringed slightly at a feral scream from Ravage. _

_"I'm working on it! The Commander is responding too slowly! I'll keep trying." She went back to the comm., still firing heavily on the enemy troops. /Commander Bludgeon, what's the ETA for reinforcements?/_

_/Your team has served the cause well, Terabyte. However we cannot spare any troops for your rescue. Know that your sacrifice is for a noble cause. Bludgeon over and out./_

_"Slag." She turned to her mentor. "Makeshift! We're on our own. Reinforcements are __**not**__ coming. What do we do, sir?"_

_"This is your mission, Terabyte. Your call. Remember rule number one." A nearby enemy sniper howled, falling from his perch above them._

_"Never let your troops see your indecision." The femme whispered. Louder she gave her orders out loud and through comm.-line. "Recon Squad Delta, regroup at my coordinates and prepare to fall back. Bludgeon's left us for dead."_

_"What're __**you**__ giving orders for kid? I thought Makeshift was in charge." Barricade sneered._

_"Lieutenant Colonel Makeshift has placed me in command. You-" She cut off her angry retort when her mentor interrupted, finishing her sentence in his own way._

_"-will follow her orders as you would my own, or we'll have to have words later. Understood?" He paused to toss the ex-Enforcer a menacing grin. "Good."_

_Chaos ensued when the Autobots' lead tactician, Prowl, was sighted. She wasn't sure why their small reconnaissance mission was so important to the Autobots. Why would they have sent one of their best mechs to take care of them? They must be close to something big. Soundwave will want to know about this. They'd found it by a fluke, but the information would be very useful._

_The whole team was made up mostly of older mechs now; the younger ones had gone down a while ago. Of course that meant that they didn't think she was a capable enough leader to cope with the bigger baddies. So instead they went solo, every mech for himself; which just left her and Makeshift._

_That didn't last long, as her mentor - wearing an Autobot form - decided to try and rally the other three before they got themselves offlined. _

_She was still firing on the Autobot forces, her aim true as ever - after all, when a femme has target practice with a sniper who has near-legendary skills, she was bound to have learned something. It wasn't until too late that she noticed the band of Autobots that had snuck up behind her._

_Hearing the footsteps, the spy spun around to meet them only for the Autobots she had been firing on previously to have a clear shot at her back. The heat from their blasters licked at the dorsal plating before the blast actually hit. _

_Time seemed to slow down and she could feel her armor tearing away from her frame. She smelled the sharp scent of burnt wires and exposed life-En fill the air. The pain set in shortly after and she screamed in agony, falling to her hands and knees. _

_A very small portion of her processor that hadn't been overwhelmed by the fiery pain noted the sound of a jet engine rapidly approaching._

* * *

True to her word, Terabyte started working on her report as soon as she'd finished her repairs. She was terribly tired though... It had been a stressful rotation to say the least. The small noises of Ratchet's working lulled her into a fog and the temptation to just slip into recharge was nearly overpowering.

As the femme listened to the muffled whirr of the welding torch, the quiet griping of the medic as he worked, distant voices of the other mechs... The datapad slid out of her thin, silvery servos, landing in her lap with a light clink. Golden optics dimmed to gray and the black and Prussian blue helm fell gently to her shoulder.

_Bink..._

**"Huhmm? Go 'way..."** She mumbled, still in recharge.

_Bink. Bink. __**Bink. **_

_'Who-?' _Terabyte accessed the communications ping and read through the details blearily. _'Soundwave... Encrypted message on emergency line... -! Soundwave! ... I wonder how long he's been trying to...'_

The comm. channel was secure. There was no way that the Autobots would be able to intercept it. Especially since Team Prime had no hacker on Earth at the moment. Yet another thing tipping the scales of this war in the Decepticons' favor.

_**Bink. BINK.**_

_/Yes Sir? My apologies, sir./ _Terabyte sent quickly. It was never a good thing to make the communications head wait. Although, she'd pretty much already shot that. Who knew how long her boss had been trying to contact her while she was asleep.

_/Skyquake: terminated?/ _Commander Soundwave's message flashed on her HUD. His glyphs had a slightly annoyed slant. Perhaps it was a good thing that they were communicating through the comm.. Terabyte could almost feel the waves of angry frustration that were no doubt rolling off of the empathic mech.

_/Negative. He is... alive. Severe processor damage. Mental stability uncertain at present. He has not yet awoken. The medic is completing repairs currently. The Autobots' ulterior motives for his repairing are unknown./ _

_/Maintain cover. Do not tell him./ _He sent crisply.

Soundwave cut the link before she could reply. Don't tell Skyquake. But why? What harm could telling him do? If anything, harm would come of not telling him. Maybe it was just as a precaution until things settled in a bit...

How could she _not _tell him? He was the closest friend she'd ever had! She couldn't just start lying to the mech; that would be wrong. Besides, Skyquake could tell when she was lying; he'd figured that out vorns ago. Simply not mentioning it was just as bad... But orders were orders. In the end, Terabyte knew Skyquake would understand. Or at least she convinced herself that he would.

The gentle swoosh of the med-bay door shook her from her thoughts. Ratchet walked out, running one hand over his face-plates with an exhausted sigh.

"**How is he?"** Terabyte asked, expression and tone carefully blank – in theory.

"Resting. I will bring him from stasis next orn if he hasn't woke up by then**."** Ratchet said, sounding like he was quoting a report.

Terabyte realized that he must have finished with the procedure while she was asleep and had been working on other things. How long had she been in recharge? She didn't even remember powering down in the first place. The mini-bot stood up slowly, wincing a little and checking her chronometer. Rotation's almost over. She could still have that report for the Prime finished if she hurried.

Not noticing that the medic had left and brought back a medical scanner, the femme made to leave. A red hand grabbed her forearm roughly.

"And just where do you think you're going?"

**"To my cell; the Prime asked that I have a report ready by end this rotation."** She explained trying to wrench free of the medic's grasp. His grip was unrelenting.

"Well Prime can wait, because I'm going to make sure _none _of my patients are left uncared for." Ratchet snapped, dragging her back into his medical domain. Terabyte couldn't help but shudder lightly at the medic's harsh tone.

He firmly pushed her onto one of the empty berths. "And when I'm finished, you're going to be moving into some quarters. The brig will be needed."

Deciding that it was best that she not fight the medic – doing so would be pointless and only serve as a hindrance to her mission – Terabyte worked on her report while the mech ran multiple different scans on her as well as completing some of her repairs more to his satisfaction. Both Cybertronians finished at approximately the same time.

Terabyte stood up, admittedly feeling much better, keeping her helm tilted respectfully downward. She would simply wait for the medic to act first; by rank, that was all she really could do. Not to mention the medic's sour mood and love of thwacking mechs with various medical utensils.

"What are you waiting for? Get out. I have work to do." Ratchet grumbled as he set about putting away his tools. He was obviously still not too happy about having to repair Skyquake.

**"Yes sir."** The femme answered, a bit puzzled. These Autobots at least didn't seem to hold protocol in very high regard. More accurately; they didn't seem to _have _protocols.

She remembered they had followed very strict regulations back on Cybertron... Perhaps the death of the former SIC had something to do with it. Most mechs had been scared of Prowl, with good reason too. The war had really started to look up for the Decepticons when he was terminated; the tactician had practically been the backbone of Autobot law.

Discarding that thought line for the time being, Terabyte entered the main room and looked around for the Autobot leader. He wasn't there.

"So the Doc got you fixed up? Feeling better?" Cliffjumper asked with a fairly chipper tone.

**"Yeah." **The femme answered shortly. The three humans glanced up at her with curious expressions. **"Do you know where I might find the Prime?"**

A lowly growling engine drew her attention to the two Autobots on the couch. "Optimus is in his office." Raf answered. Bumblebee's optics narrowed and his tone was dangerously flat. Or maybe that's just how it was without the whirring and beeping. **"You'll speak **_**English**_** when humans are present, 'Con."**

She frowned, **"English?"** Oh. She had still been speaking Cybertronian. Well she was Cybertronian, who were they to tell her she couldn't use her own language? **"What's wrong with Cybertronian? I speak English when I'm talking to the humans and I speak our language otherwise."**

**"While on Earth you **_**will **_**speak English… at all times. Not just when talking directly to them**.**"** Bumblebee growled.

Miko glanced over at Raf from where she was sitting. "What are they saying?" She whispered loudly enough for the mechs' sharp audials to pick up.

"Um… I think she doesn't want to speak English unless she's talking to us, and Bee's insisting she does. I think." Raf whispered back to her.

"Well, you know, it is kinda rude…" Miko pointed out, supporting her Autobot friends.

**"Was killing our planet not enough for you?" **She shouted at the Autobots accusingly, ignoring the human sparklings**. "Must you destroy our culture as well?"**

In the background, Terabyte could hear the youngest still translating as best he could. He at least got the basic idea of what she was saying.

"Tera'... that is not the point. It is polite to the inhabitants of the planet we are disturbing with our war." Cliffjumper said, dead serious now. "To be honest, I'm surprised Optimus didn't-"

**"Don't you dare call me that!"** Terabyte shrieked, then stopped and took a deep intake to cool her overheating systems. She couldn't allow her past to interfere with her mission. Her shoulders slumped as she forced herself into submission. "I will speak the fleshies' language."

"Hey! We're not-" Miko protested loudly before being interrupted.

"Miko!" Jack hissed, prodding her with his elbow sharply.

"What? I'm not scared of some stuck-up Dece- Ow!" Miko yelped as Jack's elbow collided with her abdomen again.

"Giant evil alien robots, Miko. You do not want to make her mad." Jack said sharply.

Terabyte clenched her jaw tightly and with a curt deferential nod to Cliffjumper, the navy femme walked quickly to the Prime's office. Now the human children were going to be afraid of her. As if she would harm sparklings. Already the Autobot prejudice was tainting these innocents' minds. The spy shook her helm lightly and opened the door to the Prime's office. Upon entering, Terabyte found that the Prime was occupied with something or other on the surface of his desk, which was basically a giant datapad.

Placing her report on the edge of his desk, Terabyte stared at her pedes, not wanting to distract the Autobot leader, but still wanting to get his attention. He looked up slowly.

"Yes, Terabyte?"

Said femme turned her helm away nervously. She fiddled with the accessories on her cannon for a little bit before answering, just barely keeping herself from using Cybertronian. "** I fin- **I finished my report as requested... And..."

She couldn't do this. How would the Prime respond to such a presumptuous request? She was still a prisoner, for pit's sake!

"Go on." Optimus was now paying full attention to her. He was clearly expecting her to continue and would not allow her to back out now. Though she knew the Prime was still fairly young, the spy couldn't help but notice the age-old wisdom behind his blue optics. There was something else there too; like he knew a secret about her… It was frightening. She got a feeling that the mech could see right through her; straight into the depths of her very spark.

Terabyte slowly shuttered her optics for a moment to regain her composure. "Ratchet sent me to request living quarters for myself."

As soon as she'd said it, Terabyte realized how much that had sounded like she was trying to pass blame off on Ratchet. She would have rephrased her request had the Prime not spoken so soon.

"That can be arranged. As you know, this base is not large, because of that you will likely be sharing someone else's quarters." She nodded briskly as the Autobot continued, "If you will follow me, we can discuss the matter with the others."

* * *

Needless to say, the suggestion did not go over well.

**"You want us to share our personal quarters with a 'Con?!"**

"No way!"

"She'd kill us in our sleep, first chance she got."

"Big 'Bot, I really do want to trust her, but don't you think it's a little early for this?"

Terabyte winced at their accusations. She would never kill an Autobot in their sleep! She smirked. No, if she was going to offline an Autobot, she wanted them to be awake; to see and feel their termination coming.

As she fumed internally, her anger and hatred for the Autobots welling up inside her, the spy glared at her pedes. She sincerely hoped that she looked subdued and respectful, and not like she wanted to rip their helms off - which she did.

"I know it is risky, but it will not be without appropriate precautions. I will not force this responsibility upon any one of you, and you know that I would not ask you to do what I would not be willing to do myself." Optimus interrupted their protests, bringing silence to the room.

"Then why _don_'_t_ you do it yourself?" Miko asked from where the humans had been listening. They had been getting ready to go home when she and the Prime entered.

Terabyte's helm shot up in alarm. Involuntarily the mini-bot cringed away from the Prime, repressing a low whine from her engine. The idea terrified her, honestly. The Prime was one of the greatest Autobot warriors in Cybertronian history; to be that close to him would be suicide!

A rumbling chuckle came from the Prime. "Judging from her reaction, my assumption was correct… Our goal is not to terrify every mech that tries to join us, but to make them feel welcome." He looked at her with a ghost of a smile on his lips. Again she got the feeling that he knew more about her than he was letting on. Terabyte looked away quickly, slightly perturbed.

Silence fell once more as each mech considered their Prime's request. In that time, Terabyte considered her own preferences.

Optimus had already been ruled out. Bumblebee was out of the question; there was no way she'd live in the same room as the mech who'd tried to kill Skyquake. Arcee hated her, so that was pretty much not going to happen.

So, logically, Cliffjumper, Bulkhead, and Ratchet were the only plausible op-

"My answer is no!" Ratchet hollered from the next room.

Nevermind then; just Cliffjumper or Bulkhead. But which of them would volunteer? Terabyte really just wished she could have a place to herself, but that was not likely to be happening for a very long time. Sharing quarters would make it so much harder to hold her cover though... She wouldn't be able to be herself for the entirety of her mission.

"I'll take her." Cliffjumper said finally, breaking the silence. He shrugged, "Like I said, I want to trust her."

Although a bit surprised at the depth of his sincerity, the Prussian blue mini-bot was not at all surprised by the red warrior's decision.

"No!"

All helms simultaneously turned to gape at the speaker's unexpected outburst. Arcee stepped out of her little corner, arms crossed stubbornly.

"No." She repeated firmly. "It's not safe; we can't trust her. She belongs in the brig, like the 'Con she is."

"'Cee? Give her a chance at least..." Cliffjumper argued, frowning as if puzzled by her reaction. He looked ready to add one of his lame jokes to release tension, but Arcee went on before he could.

"Give her a chance to do what? Stab you in the back? We've nearly lost you once already. I won't let that _killer_ be trusted!" Arcee yelled. She seemed to do that a lot. Terabyte wondered just what had happened that had engendered such hatred for the Decepticons in the femme. She tried not to think about how similar it was to her own hatred for the Autobots.

"Ever consider that people can change?" Terabyte asked quietly, hoping to use this opportunity to reinforce to the Autobots her wish to defect.

"A 'Con is a 'Con! You can't just decide, 'Oh hey, I'm going to become an Autobot' and expect us to be alright with that!"

'_I can't? Really? Aww, mech… And I'd thought it was working so well.' _Terabyte thought in a sarcastically innocent whine. She grinned under her mask.

"We agreed to give her an opportunity to defect, Arcee." Optimus reminded her gently. "We will stand by that decision. Cliffjumper, thank you for your willin-"

"Fine! Cliff' is too trusting though, it wouldn't be safe for him, or anyone else on this base." The blue and pink femme's optics shone with challenge as she interrupted her Prime. She was practically daring someone to deny it. "I'll take her. She needs someone to keep a sharp optic on her at all times. Optimus?"

Terabyte was getting really sick of being spoken about like she wasn't standing _right there_. Was she going to get any say in this? Eh, who was she kidding? POW's didn't get choices. She would just have to adapt with whatever the Autobots threw at her. That's part of why she'd been chosen for this mission; she was adaptable.

"Your point does have merit. Cliffjumper? Is that satisfactory?" The Prime asked, even though he had obviously already decided. Whether Cliffjumper agreed or not would probably have no impact on his choice.

The red front-liner had apparently come to the same conclusion she had. "Yup! Although I might want to get a thicker wall…" He trailed off, grinning at Arcee. The femme tore her burning glare away from the spy long enough to land it on Cliffjumper for a few astroseconds.

"Then it is decided. Terabyte, you will be sharing quarters with Arcee."

* * *

**Two rotations after Skyquake's awakening. Near midnight.**

_Logic. Centers. On…Line._

Skyquake could feel every system come sluggishly online, one by one. His helm ached and his processor was struggling to bring him online. Almost like it had never done it before… But that was absurd. Of course he'd woken up before… at some point…

Where was he? Skyquake tried to open his optics but they didn't respond. After several more attempts his optics finally opened and ruby optics were flooded with a blindingly bright light. He snapped his optics shut immediately. Or at least, he tried to. There was a several nanoseconds long lag between impulse and action.

The pain in his processors was getting worse every moment he was online. It felt like his processors were out of sync with each other, his processors running at three different speeds; causing his helm to feel like it was being torn apart. Skyquake tried to remember what had happened, but his memories were blurred and obscured by a mental fog. They felt… distant, out of reach. His optics dimmed as he attempted to ease the aching. He felt so weak, tired…

Terabyte! Where was she? Skyquake bolted back into alertness. He hoped she was alright. It had been so long since he'd seen her… Or anyone else for that matter. The mech frowned minutely. He couldn't even remember who he was supposed to know.

Forcing his processors into action, Skyquake tried to work out where he was based on what he'd seen in the short time that his optics were open. He wasn't with the Decepticons, the lights were far too bright…

Just before his mind slipped into the nothingness of stasis, Skyquake's processor provided the answer to his question.

He was with the Autobots.

* * *

Ratchet glared over at the Decepticon fighter lying unconscious on the medical berth, cluttering _his_ med-bay. Hearing a quiet beep from the monitoring system, the medic got up and checked the Decepticon's vital signs. He frowned at the screen that was telling him that Skyquake was conscious and online.

The red and white medic looked at the offending Decepticon, and his scowl deepened. No movement whatsoever. Nothing to indicate that the mech was awake. Ratchet went back to work, glancing up at the warrior frequently.

A few klicks later, he checked the Decepticon's vitals again. Back to normal: Minimal processor functions, lowered spark pulse. Must have been malfunctioning. Ratchet scowled at the medical equipment before returning to his desk, grumbling under his breath.

"Stupid, glitching, primitive human technology…"

* * *

**A.N. By the way, when I refer to Terabyte as a mini-bot, I simply mean that she is small. Like G-1 Bumblebee, Jazz and Cliffjumper were all called 'mini-bots'.**


End file.
